The San Francisco Giants will face the Chicago Cubs in the NLDS. Twitter reacted to Madison Bumgarner slowly but surely crushing the dreams of Mets fans.
The San Francisco Giants beat the New York Mets 3-0 in the NL Wild Card Game. They will face the juggernaut Chicago Cubs in the NLDS in what should be an unbelievable series. Cubs fans probably would’ve preferred a crack at the Mets after they knocked them out of last year’s playoffs, but they’ll welcome the challenge of facing the Giants.
The pitching matchup of Noah Syndergaard vs. Madison Bumgarner was as good as advertised. Both pitchers brought the heat and delivered gems over the course of their respective outings. Bumgarner pitched eight scoreless innings, and Bruce Bochy didn’t even think to warm up anyone in the Giants bullpen. Just when it felt like we’d be here for 18 innings, Conor Gillaspie broke through against Jeurys Familia. That home run sent the Twitter floodgates open:
Bumgarner’s performance in the 2014 MLB Playoffs deserves its own 30 for 30. And after the Giants missed the playoffs in 2015, he’s back for his encore, since the Giants have stayed true to form by getting back in an even-numbered year. After the Cubs had an amazing year, it would be weird to not see them in the World Series. But the Giants won the World Series last time as a Wild Card team, and if they beat the Cubs, it’ll be because of Mad Bum.
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Meanwhile, Familia is a great closer, but he’s let his team down in the playoffs too many times. Few Mets fans will ever forgive him for his Game 5 collapse in last year’s World Series after Matt Harvey pitched a masterpiece. It’ll be tough for them to recover from this, but they’ve got the talent to get right back to the playoffs next year.