No matter how you look at, no matter whom you’d like to blame (ahem. bullpen), the San Francisco Giants have been miserable in the second half of the 2016 season.
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Not the Phillies, not the Braves, not the Reds, not the Brewers, not the Padres, not the D’backs.
Only the American League’s Minnesota Twins, 23-40 in the second half and losers of 90-plus games for the fifth time in the last six seasons, can save the Giants from being the worst of the worst in the second half. At the moment the Cardinals are better against their own division, 36-30, while the Mets are 33-33 against their East rivals. The Pittsburg Pirates and the Miami Marlins are trying to make their way into a Wild Card spot as well, so the Mets need some help.
The Mets, Cardinals and Giants woke up Wednesday morning with identical 80-71 records as they race to secure the National League’s two wild-card spots. “Club C would then host the loser of the game between Club A and Club B to determine the second Wild Card Club”. After an off day on Monday, the team heads back to the Bay Area for three against Colorado and three more against LA. The loser of the tiebreaker would travel to San Francisco with another chance to advance. All of these guys have also been on the DL themselves at some point after the All-Star break and it has opened up opportunities for the Mets’ reinforcements to step in and show their worth. This could be nightmarish for the Mets due to the insane amount of travel involved, so the best case scenario for them is to simply win enough games to claim a spot outright. The problem, really, is with San Diego, specifically Petco Park, where the Giants are only 3-3 this year and were swept in a three-game set coming out of the break.
Now, it remains to be seen if these kids can keep it up, and they will definitely be tested in October if they get there.
San Francisco has yet to be eliminated in the chase for the N.L. West title, but trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers by five games with 11 to play pretty much takes that out of the equation.
After Chicago, the Redbirds head home for four against the Reds, against whom they’re 8-7, and three more against the Pirates, against whom they have a losing record (7-9).
You know, with the way Mets starters are having season-ending surgeries, the latest being Jacob deGrom being shut down (he had surgery today to reposition the ulnar nerve in his right elbow), if anyone else goes down, it might not be a bad idea to scrounge around for a spare arm to finish the year.
The zaniest possible travel schedule belongs to the Mets.
Questions are on the docket, and the answers might not be known until a week from Sunday, when the regular season closes on October 2.
If they win, they rest on the plane back to NY and face the victor of the Giants-Cards sudden death face-off at Citi Field. The Mets have done well against the Phillies in the Big Apple and against the Marlins in South Beach, twice taking two of three against those clubs, in those venues. Because they split the season series 3-3, right now the game would be played at Busch Stadium because of the Cardinals’ better in-division record. In this scenario you want to be Club A because you get the home tiebreaker game and a loss would not automatically mean elimination.
The Mets and Cardinals would face-off on October 4 to determine who the top Wild Card team is. The Mets can not afford to have the Pirates make a last second surge for a Wild Card spot, but if the Pirates happen to replace the Cardinals, that’s fine too. They play a one-game playoff October 3 for the right to advance to the October 5 Wild Card Game.
Wednesday, Oct. 5: The survivors play in the NL wild-card game.
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In other words, there are three games played to determine the ultimate entrant into the National League Division Series.
