Tuesday night’s game between the Blue Jays and Orioles kicked off the MLB postseason with a 5-2 win for Toronto and the end of the major league season for Baltimore.
Wednesday night, the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets will continue the wild card fight to make it to MLB postseason with the National League Wild Card Game. It will be the most expensive wild-card game ever, since tickets for the game at Citi Field are averaging over $310.
The winner of the Wild Card game on Wednesday will advance to play the Chicago Cubs, in the National League Division Series, which begins Friday, October 7th at 9:00 p.m ET.
The Cubs are probably hoping for a San Francisco victory, since they were 4-3 against the Giants this season and 2-5 against the Mets. The Mets also swept the Cubs in last year’s postseason game.
After finishing the regular season with identical 85-75 records, the Mets and Giants both look promising to win the NLWC game and have done well in the postseason in the past.
Wednesday night’s game will most likely be decided on the mound, thanks to strong pitchers on both teams. The headliners will be Giants’ pitcher Madison Bumgarner and Mets’ pitcher Noah Syndergaard; the two finished fourth and third, respectively, in the majors in earned run average (ERA). The Mets have already fallen twice to Bumgarner this season, 6-1 in May at Citi Field and 10-7 in August.
In addition to a successful record against the Mets this season, the Giants have another not-insignificant advantage: history.
In 2014 the Giants played the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Wild Card Game, beating them 8-0 despite the Pirate’s home field advantage. The Giants also came out on top in a Bumgarner-Syndergaard match-up earlier this season in New York, where Bumgarner lasted only 5.2 innings, giving up four runs and helping San Francisco cinch a 6-1 victory.
While the Giants may have a slight advantage, most are saying the NLWC meetup could be anyone’s game.
The National League Wild Card game will take place on October 5th, at 8 p.m. ET. We’ve made it easy for you to watch the game and follow all the MLB postseason action.
Here’s how to watch the MLB postseason games:
In order to watch the games online, fans can use the Fox Sports GO website (or app for mobile viewing), but access requires a valid login through a cable provider. Games are also available for streaming on TBS Sports and you can find other ways to watch without a cable login from Cut Cable Today.
You can also find the full postseason schedule, along with the latest baseball news at MLB.com.
And, just a reminder, the first game of the 2016 World Series is set for October 25th.