Giants Win! San Francisco Advances to Playoffs for Fourth Time in a Decade

NEW YORK — It was do-or-die for the San Francisco Giants tonight — beat the New York Mets in a wild card game or the season was over. It went all the way to the ninth inning before a run was put on the boards ... but the Giants prevailed 3-0.

Both teams put their aces on the mound — Madison Bumgarner for the Giants and Noah Syndergaard for the Mets. They both pitched beauties. Syndergaard was pulled after seven scoreless innings when his pitch count crossed 100. Addison Reed came in at the top of the eighth and the Giants loaded the bases. Hunter Pence struck out for the third out.

It was scoreless when the Giants came up in the ninth. Against a fresh pitcher, Pleasanton native Brandon Crawford hit a lead-off double. After Angel Pagan struck out and Joe Panik walked, Conor Gillaspie hit a three-run homer.

MadBum took the mound in the ninth with 106 pitches to his credit. He set them down in order.

There was drama on the base pads in the top of the fourth when the Giants' Denard Span was thrown out stealing second. Slow-motion replay seemed to show that he was safe. However, a challenge upheld the "out" call, much to the Giants disbelief. The Twitter sphere was equally dumbfounded. Even comments from fans who displayed their allegiance for other teams thought he was safe.

Span came right back in the sixth and stole second, this time called safe.

Next up for the Giants — the team with the best record on baseball, the Chicago Cubs.

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