The last two National League pennant winners are back in the playoffs in 2016, but as Wild Card teams. The Mets will host the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night in the 2016 National League Wild Card Game at Citi Field in New York.
Giants vs. Mets 2016 live stream: Time, TV schedule, and how to watch NL Wild Card Game online
New York won 4-of-7 meetings with San Francisco in 2016.
Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports
The 8:08 p.m. ET game will be televised on ESPN.
The Mets, who reached the World Series in 2015, are back in the playoffs for consecutive seasons for the first time since 1999-2000. New York fell under .500 on the season, sitting at 60-62 on Aug. 19 and 5½ games out of a playoff spot. But a 27-13 finishing kick, best in the majors during that span, gave New York a return to an extended October.
The Giants are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2014, when they rode the left arm of Madison Bumgarner from a Wild Card spot all the way to a World Series title, their third in a five-year span. San Francisco’s quest for a fourth straight even-year championship will start with that familiar face on the ground, as Bumgarner faces off against Noah Syndergaard for the Mets.
New York entered the season with their young starting rotation as a great strength, but the trio of Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, and Steven Matz have all suffered injuries and are out for the year. That leaves Syndergaard, just 23, who had a fine season in 2016. He went 14-9 with a 2.60 ERA in 31 games (30 starts), with 218 strikeouts in 183⅔ innings.
Bumgarner has more in common with his Mets counterpart than just excellent mound work. In 2014, he had a minuscule 1.03 ERA in the postseason and set a record at 52⅔ innings pitched. He won four games and pitched a five-inning save in Game 7 to secure the World Series for San Francisco.
Additionally, Bumgarner and Syndergaard each hit three home runs to lead all pitchers in baseball in 2016. Bumgarner, who batted in lieu of a DH at Oakland on June 30 this year, has 12 home runs in 256 plate appearances in his last three years, hitting .227/.275/.428 during that span.
Both the Mets and Giants finished with 87 wins, but New York held the tiebreaker with their four wins in seven regular season games against San Francisco. These two pitchers also faced off on May 1 at Citi Field. Bumgarner pitched six scoreless innings that gave the Giants a 6-1 victory over Syndergaard and the Mets.
The winner of the NL Wild Card Game will move on to face the best-in-baseball Chicago Cubs, winners of 103 games in the regular season, with the NLDS starting on Friday night at Wrigley Field.
Dan Shulman will call the game for ESPN, who will use their usual Sunday Night Baseball crew, which includes analysts Jessica Mendoza and Aaron Boone, plus reporter Buster Olney.
NL Wild Card Game info
When: 8:08 p.m. ET
Where: Citi Field, New York, N.Y.
TV: ESPN
Radio: ESPN Radio
Online: Postseason.TV & WatchESPN
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