NL Wildcard Game Preview

By Djack

The last two teams to represent the  NL in the World Series will face off tonight to see who gets the opportunity to make another playoff run this year, loser goes home to watch from their couch with you and I. Mets are the home team and have Noah Syndergaard on the mound, the Giants will have Madison Bumgarner taking the hill, so get ready for a low scoring game with a lot of swings and misses. It is October though, so anything can happen, look at Clayton Kershaw he has horrible postseason numbers, and it's just because October baseball is a different animal. Bumgarner has proven to be one of if not the best postseason pitchers ever, he's only 27 so that could change, but based on what we've seen it won't, and with every great performance he has he cements his legacy a little bit more. Syndergaard on the other hand doesn't have nearly as much experience, he pitched well in last year's postseason, so hopefully he will be able to build off that. The pitching match up will not be the difference maker in this one, the bullpen, and the bats will. Both these teams have aces going so runs are going to be extremely hard to come by, so I can see the Giants trying to play a lot of small ball to manufacture runs. They'll try to run all over Syndergaard to get runners in scoring positions, look for Bochy to do anything he can to get one or two runs on the board with the use of small ball. The Mets on the other hand will have one approach to this game, try to hit home runs, the reason being when the Mets hit home runs they win games, it's that simple. All year this Mets team has lived and died by the home run ball, I think Jay Bruce will go yard in this game, and make every Mets fan thankful for trading for him. The Mets bullpen isn't dominate, they have Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia who are two very good relievers, the Giants on the other hand have one of the worst bullpen's in baseball so they'll need for Bumgarner to go deep in this game. I know I should pick the Giants because it's an even year, Bumgarner is pitching, and they have the experience, but I never like picking against the Mets in a big playoff game. The miracle Mets will win this game 4-2 , Bumgarner will let up a big homerun at some point that will ultimately lead to the Giants demise, the even year trend will end, and the Mets will be moving onto Chicago.