The NL Wild Card game is on Wednesday night for the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates and the game will be on TBS for TV coverage and the radio live stream will be on ESPN. The game is at PNC Park and it marks the third straight season that the Pirates will play in this game in the National League playoffs.
The winner of this series will face a familiar opponent, as the St. Louis Cardinals are waiting in the NLDS. The Pirates made things close at the end of the season in the division standings, but they could not catch the Cards and now they will have to get past another divisional team to make it. The pitching matchup where is a great one, as Gerrit Cole has been pitching well all season and Jake Arrieta won 20 games for the Cubs this season.
The Cubs are one of the great stories in the MLB, as the team has not been in the playoffs for quite some time. Some see this team as the team of destiny, as the Cubs have not won a World Series for 100 years and haven't been back to one since the 1940's. The team has young stars like Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo leading the way and the Cubs will try and win against Andrew McCutchen and the Pirates on the road in the wild card game.
These two teams finished with better records than the Mets and Dodgers, but they are in the wild card game because the Cardinals won 100 games and the division. The Cubs won 97 games and the Bucs won 98 games and now those two teams will face off yet again after playing numerous times this season. Arrieta comes in pitching very well and he has an ERA under 1.00 over his last 20 starts and that could be the key for the Cubs if they want to advance into the next round.
Cole has not been too shabby himself this season, as he won 19 games for the Pirates and has also pitched well against the Cubs. Cole has four starts against the team and he went 2-1 in that time while putting up a 2.13 ERA. Cole has pitched in the postseason before and that is one advantage that he (and the Pirates team) has over the Cubs, as this group has never made the postseason before. Vets like Jon Lester and Austin Jackson have experience in the playoffs, but players like Kris Bryant, Addison Russell and Kyle Schwarber as well as Starlin Castro are getting their first real taste. This should be a great game between two teams that have played each other quite a bit this season.
Check here for the Cubs and Pirates schedule, live stream coverage link and ESPN Radio stream schedule and link. Check here for the full MLB playoffs schedule.
