The NL Wild Card schedule for the 2014 season picks up on Wednesday and the game will be on TV from ESPN starting up past 8 pm ET for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants at PNC Park to see who will advance to the ALDS to play against the Washington Nationals in the next round.
The Pirates come in as the first wild card over the Giants and they will be the home team and this comes after they made the playoffs last season for the first time in two decades. The Pirates have Volquez on the mound against Bumgarner, who ended up as one of the best pitchers in the NL this season and that should give the Giants an early advantage. The Royals won the AL wild card game in a, yes, wild game against the Athletics, coming back to walk-off in the 12th inning after previously going down four runs.
The Pirates will have their home fans going nuts in this game and now Volquez comes in after leading the team in wins and Era, while Bumgarner was one of the leading pitchers in the NL. These two teams have played in the postseason before, but that was back in 1971 and now the new faces will take over as both sides try to advance into the division series. Bumgarner will not be rattled and he comes in after winning 18 games this season and the young starter said that he doesn't get nervous and that the bright lights will not be an issue for him.
The Royals fans made a difference at Kauffman and now the Pirates fans have the chance to do the same. The fans clearly rattled Cincinnati starter Johnny Cueto last season and now they will try and do that with Bumgarner, who clearly is the better pitcher this season compared with Volquez, although he had a nice season as well. Volquez comes in hot and he has lost just one of his last 17 starts, going 9-1 with a sub 2.00 ERA in that span.
The Giants come in without Angel Pagan in the lineup after he was injured and Marco Scutaro won't be able to make up his heroics from last time the team won. The Giants and Pirates both have strong catchers with Buster Posey and Russell Martin and the way they call the game and work the bases could have a huge impact on the outcome. Posey has been the NL leader in hitting since August 21 and that comes at the perfect time for the Giants, as he had been dealing with some injury issues earlier in the year.
The Giants got off to a furious start before the dodgers caught up to them in the division and LA never looked back. Now the Giants will try and win to advance and then they will play the Nationals on the road in DC after they clinched the top spot in the NL.