It is hard to explain what to make of the 2016 San Francisco Giants. They were the best team in the game at the All-Star break, and one of the worst in the game since. Yet, here we are in October, in 2016, and the Giants are back in the playoffs. Is it their pitching? Is it their defense? Is it their timely hitting? Or is it the year on the calendar.
The Giants have done this before. In 2010 and 2014, they waited until the final day of the regular season to clinch a playoff berth. They won the National League West in 2010 on the final day of the season, beating the San Diego Padres in a thriller, and in 2014, they made it in as a Wild Card team, having to travel to Pittsburgh for a one game playoff. Two years later, they are back in the same spot all over again, except this time they are in New York.
The Giants experience is clear. They have several players with multiple World Series rings and heading into tonight's game, there should be confidence in the visitor locker room. However, momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher and the Mets have Noah Syndergaard going tonight. The Giants have their own mythical figure in Madison Bumgarner, but Thor, as he's known in Gotham City, has become God-like in his own right this season. Winning Game 3 of the World Series last year proved that Syndergaard can succeed in October. Bumgarner's track record has become the book of legend.
So do the defending NL Pennant winning Mets dethrone the inevitability of "Even Year Magic?" That will be the question.
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