Giants keep finding those postseason heroes

Cody Ross, Travis Ishikawa, move over. In the pantheon of San Francisco's unlikely heroes, you've got company. 

Connor Gillaspie's three-run homer in the top of the ninth-inning was the only scoring, and it backed up a magnificent performance from Madison Bumgarner as the Giants toppled the Mets 3-0 to take the National League Wildcard Game on a frigid Tuesday night in New York.

Yeah, that's a ridiculously long paragraph with little punctuation. Sorry if you're out of breath after reading it. You have our sympathies; after that contest we're out of breath, too.

One thing is for certain: no matter which team you root for you have to admit that the Giants, Mets, Orioles and Blue Jays have made one heck of an argument in favor of the wildcard round. This was a great baseball, and it was compelling.

So often games expected to be great pitching battles don't live up to the hype. This one did, and may have exceeded it. Bumgarner and Noah Syndergaard were both virtually unhittable on this evening. The difference? Bumgarner was still standing at the end.

Syndergaard was brilliant, stymieing the Giants through seven innings, but pitch count forced him from the game. The Giants threatened in the eighth and finally broke through in the ninth, 

With God as my witness I thought he could fly. (SF Gate)

It was a historic game in a number of ways. The Giants are the first team to win multiple wildcard games, having also done so two years ago. This is only their second-ever postseason victory over the Mets, winning game one of the 2000 NLDS before dropping three straight. San Francisco has now won five straight winner take all playoff games and nine straight elimination games dating back to that 2012 division series against the Reds. 

And while we're talking about history, keep this in mind. The Giants have won 11 straight postseason series under manager Bruce Bochy, running up a gaudy 35-14 record including victories in 19 of 27 games on the road.

Enough about history, let's talk about the heroes of the night, starting with Bumgarner. The big left-hander is making an argument for himself as quite simply the greatest playoff pitcher who has ever played the game. He has now tossed 23 consecutive postseason frames without giving up a run. Against New York he spun a complete game, shutting out the Mets on just four hits while striking out six. That was the difference in the game. New York had to go to its bullpen; the Giants were able to rely on their ace from first pitch to last. 

Even this photo is scary. (SF Gate)

Syndergaard was every bit Bumgarner's equal save one exception: durability. He surrendered just two hits while fanning 10, but had thrown 108 pitches after seven frames. Addison Reed survived a bases-loaded crisis in the eighth provided by a hit and two walks, but closer Jeurys Familia found his inner Santiago Casilla in the ninth.

Enter hero number two. Brandon Crawford opened the ninth with a double and Joe Panik drew a one-out walk. Gillaspie, he who was drafted by the Giants then passed around MLB like a fifth of Jack Daniels at a frat party, stepped to the plate and lined Familia's 1-1 pitch over the right field wall. Boom, the Prodigal Son returns. Slay the fatted calf, because we'll need sustinance on the way to Chicago.

Sergio Romo had made a pretense of warning up but really, did anyone think Bumgarner wasn't going to finish this one. He'd have to be carried out on his shield. Actually, he still should have been carried out. Shoulders, not shields.

The Mets were done emotionally, and MadBum quickly made that literal. Yoenis Caspedes, Curtis Granderson and TJ Rivera each flied to a different outfielder, with Denard Span putting away Rivera's routine pop-up to send the Giants to the NLDS.

The Giants managed just five hits with two, including the game-winner, belonging to Gillaspie. Crawford, Span and Angel Pagan also hit safely

Of course it's time to recognize that this is just the first step for the Giants. The Chicago Cubs oh wait, which game one of the National League division series starting on Friday.

The Giants dropped four of the seven meetings between the two over the regular season and they did so largely because they didn't hit. The Giants carried just a .147 batting average through those games with the pictures had a 3.22 ERA. 

The Cubs outscored San Francisco by a full run per game averaging 3.3 runs per contest against 2.3 for the Giants, which makes a lot of sense: each of the last five games was decided by one run. 

But in case you hadn't noticed, these aren't those Giants. This team has won five straight and six of it's last seven. That mojo that was missing for the second half of 2016? It's back.

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