The time has come, 162 games of benches clearing-hit-by-pitches-no-hitters-grand-slams-mascot-teasing-farewell-captain baseball fun. Yes, we’ve made it to October baseball; we’ve made it to the postseason. However, we still have the wild card game to go through before even thinking about the National League Division Series, don’t worry, the wild card game is only one game then it’s “so long, loser, see you spring of 2015” and “hello NLDS” or wait, maybe we should be worried about this one game winner-take-all wild card series. The Pittsburgh Pirates play host to the San Francisco Giants. Can the red hot Pirates out play and out pitch the 2 in 3 year World Series champions, the San Francisco Giants? Or will Hunter Pence pass out daily affirmations so they can pummel the Pirates? The faithful Franciscans can only hope.
Pittsburgh Pirates Vs San Francisco Giants
As far as stats go, the Giants and Pirates are neck and neck. their win loss percentages are completely identical; 88-74. The Pirates batting average of .259 surpasses that of the Giants’ .255. The Giants’ ERA of 3.50 trumps the Pirates ERA of 3.47. that’s their regular season stats against the rest of the National League division, but let’s not forget that the Giants and Pirates met a few times before… to the Pirates liking. These two wild card teams met 6 times in the regular season with the Pirates taking 4 of those games. Wednesday’s game will bring on a whole different game, different mentalities will be on the field, this is do or die time. Now which team will do and which team will die.
The Giants have made a very wise and completely obvious decision in starting their left handed ace, Madison Bumgarner. When MadBum is on the mound, the Giants feel a little more at ease. The young pitcher’s win loss record is 18-10 with an overall ERA of 2.98 and not to mention the kid can hit! Grand slams are hard to come by and even harder when you’re the pitcher. In a batting position where it’s a good job if you can even hit the ball, Bumgarner not only puts the ball into play he knocks it out of the park and clears the loaded bases, not once but twice. It’s great that he can knock a few around, but it’s not great when you are your whole team’s entire defense. Hopefully, the Giants can help out their stud both defensively and offensively.
The Pirates have decided to start Edinson Volquez with a win loss record of 13-7 and an ERA of 3.04. An impressive pitcher he may be, but the star of the Pirates is none other than Andrew McCutchen, with 89 runs, 83 RBI’s and 172 hits, McCutchen is their postseason power. The Giants offense has to wake up if it even wants to be a match to McCutchen. The Pirates and their fans hope to be a contender for that beautiful World Series trophy that they haven’t seen since 1979 and the Giants want to bring a parade back to the city of San Francisco because it’s an even year and everything. Good luck, may the best National League Wild Card team move onto the NLDS.
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