San Francisco Giants Morning Minute: The Battle of the Aces
On the wildcard edition of the San Francisco Giants Morning Minute, we take a look at the aces that will take the mound, and the offenses they face.
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In the National League’s one-game, do-or-die wildcard playoff, the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets will each send their ace to the mound.
Madison Bumgarner and Noah Syndergaard will head to the mound, each with one goal in mind: getting their team to a five-game series with baseball’s best, the Chicago Cubs, in the NLDS.
Bumgarner has been here before. When the Giants began their 2014 run to the World Series, it was the big left-hander that got things started in Pittsburgh in a one-game playoff. Against the Pirates, Bumgarner threw a complete game shutout, striking out 10 while allowing just four hits and a walk.
It was the beginning of a ridiculous run in the 2014 postseason for Bumgarner. In seven games (six starts), he pitched 52.2 innings and posted a 1.03 ERA, 0.646 WHIP, and a .153/.188/.219 opponent slash-line. He faced 198 batters, and allowed six extra-base hits. He was the winner in four games, and earned a five-inning save in game seven of the World Series. Bumgarner’s postseason run was the stuff of legends.
This season, Bumgarner posted a 2.74 ERA, his fourth straight sub-three season, and struck out a career-high 251 batters. But he ended the season on a bit of a down note. In 12 starts from August to September, he posted a 4.03 ERA and allowed 11 home runs in 76 innings (1.3 HR/9).
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The long ball was a bugaboo for Bumgarner all season. He allowed 26 on the season, the most on the team and the most of his career. He allowed multiple home runs seven times, including three in his penultimate start of the regular season against the San Diego Padres. He’ll have a tough task with the Mets on the other side.
New York finished second in the NL with 218 home runs this year, and scored a ridiculous 51 percent of their runs from the longball. They have a trio of 30-home run guys in their lineup, with Yoenis Cespedes (31), Curtis Granderson (30), and Jay Bruce (33 overall, but 25 coming with Cincinnati before a deadline deal).
But without those homers, the Mets are a rather pedestrian offensive team. They finished 25th in baseball in runs scored and average, 23rd in on-base percentage, and 16th in slugging.
On the other side, it’s up to Syndergaard to shut down a Giants’ offense that was bad for most of the second half, but woke up in the season’s final week. In a rotation that battled injuries all year, the 24-year-old flamethrower was the rock. He made 30 starts and finished third in baseball with a 2.60 ERA, and fourth by striking out 10.68 batters per nine. He also allowed just 11 home runs, equaling out to an MLB-low 0.5 home runs per nine. He did allow quite a bit of hits, as his 8.24 hits allowed per nine innings was 31st out of 74 qualified starters in the game.
Syndergaard got his own bit of postseason experience last year, as the Mets made their own run to a World Series. In four games (three starts), he threw 19 innings, struck out 26, and didn’t allow a home run. He did walk eight and give up seven runs for a 3.32 ERA, as well.
The Giants’ offense will need to find a way to crack Thor’s armor. As a group, they weren’t very good for most of the second half, but finally woke up during the final week. They scored 38 runs and hit .313 with runners in scoring position over the last six games.
Unlike the Mets, the Giants don’t go deep very much. They finished 28th in home runs, and 25th in slugging percentage. But they do get on base a lot, as they were seventh in OBP and 11th in average. They also don’t strike out much at all, going down on strikes just 1,107 times, the second-fewest in baseball. If they can avoid the strikeouts and put the ball in play, the Mets’ and their below-average defense might help them out.
Next: Giants Morning Minute: Wildcard Clinch Edition
The postseason has always been where Bumgarner has shined the most, but Syndergaard will be no easy nut to crack. The Giants will need to be a lot like the team that won five of their last six games to get into the playoffs, instead of the team that played for two months before that. The Mets are also hot, having won seven out of 10 to end the year.
One game will decide who takes on the juggernaut Cubs. Will Bumgarner continue his postseason dominance, or is Syndergaard ready to make his own October legacy?