Giants Clinch Second Wild Card in Game 162

Despite a plethora of struggles in what was an atrocious second half of baseball, the San Francisco Giants harnessed enough Even Year Magic to scamper their way into the 2016 Postseason.

On a beautiful San Francisco afternoon reminiscent to the one in which the team clinched the division against the San Diego Padres six years ago, the Giants, in Game 162, beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-1 behind the brilliant pitching of Dodger-killer Matt Moore.

The Dodgers punched their ticket to the playoffs last week and noticeably took their foot off the gas pedal early on in the ballgame.

Howie Kendrick exited the ballgame in the third inning, Chase Utley in the fifth, and Adrian Gonzalez in the sixth. Starter Kenta Maeda allowed five runs in the first two innings of the ballgame, but manager and former Giant Dave Roberts did not have anyone up in the bullpen.

The St. Louis Cardinals did their best to control their destiny by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-4, but a San Francisco win ensured that the Giants would have their spot in the playoffs. It would have taken a St. Louis win and a San Francisco loss to force a possible Game 163.

The Giants will travel to Queens to take on the defending National League Champion New York Mets in a one-game playoff. The winner of that game will take on the Chicago Cubs, who not only had the best record in the National League, but the best record in baseball by a large margin.

San Francisco's last two months of baseball have been dismal, falling from the top of the standings in baseball to the second Wild Card team, a sentiment which fans of the Oakland A's know all too well.

The beautiful California sunshine shining on one of the most beautiful stadiums in baseball was the perfect atmosphere to send Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Skully on his way to retirement.

The Giants organization did not shy away from sending off Skully into the sunset in grand fashion, honoring the 88-year old by inviting all of 41,445 in attendance to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," led by Dwane Kuiper and Mike Krukow.

In the last game of his broadcasting career, the Giants gave him his fair share of action to call.

Buster Posey and Denard Span led the way for the Giants offense early and often, combining for five RBIs to give the Giants a big lead early.

Span and Brandon Belt set the table for a two-run Posey single in the bottom of the first which landed on the right-field foul line and bounced off the small fence in foul territory. Despite Yasiel Puig's strong arm in right, all he could do was hold Posey to the single.

Span knocked in a deuce of his own in the bottom of the following inning, plating Conor Gillaspie and Moore on a triple that took an awkward bounce off the bottom of the 365 padded fence in right field.

The center fielder thought he could stroll into third with no problem, but Puig made up for the bounce by firing a missile to third base which just missed the target.

Brandon Belt added another walk to his total, which more than doubled his previous career-high before Posey knocked in Span for his third RBI of the game.

The Dodgers lone run came in the top of the fourth inning by way of a Yasmany Grandal RBI single, but Hunter Pence and Brandon Crawford tacked on two more runs with a pair of RBI singles in the eighth inning.

Bruce Bochy summoned Sergio Romo to finish off the Dodgers in the ninth inning and received thunderous applause from the San Francisco faithful after striking out Puig.

Left-fielder Angel Pagan threw his hands in the air after securing a Rob Segedin fly ball to clinch San Francisco's spot in the postseason officially.

The Dodgers may be happy that the Giants clinched a spot because it eliminated the Cardinals from postseason contention. Los Angeles's ace of staff Clayton Kershaw has noticeably struggled against the Cardinals in postseasons past.

Should the Giants and Dodgers meet in the NLCS, Los Angeles may dread having to once again see Matt Moore, who has excelled against the Dodgers for both the Rays and Giants.

Most notably, Moore came within one out of a no-hitter against the Dodgers in Los Angeles back on August 25th.

Moore did struggle against the Dodgers in his September 21st start, allowing six runs in the first inning.

If Moore and company were not able to win, Bruce Bochy prepared for a possible Game 163 against the Cardinals, including starting Johnny Cueto on two days of rest.

Moore's start made Bochy's job much easier, as he was every bit magnificent as his 11 strikeout bit against the Colorado Rockies in his last start.

Now, for the Giants, what the team achieved in the past six months of baseball no longer matters, as the team is now tasked with taking on one of the best pitchers in the game, Noah Syndergaard.

San Francisco will have an ace up their sleeve as well in the form of Madison Bumgarner.

For all of Bumgarner's excellence in the regular season, San Francisco's ace of staff becomes an entirely different animal in the postseason and has rightfully earned the title as one of the clutches pitchers in baseball.

In three years of pitching in the postseason, Bumgarner has a 2.14 ERA over 88.1 innings. The lefty has been getting it done in the postseason since his rookie year during San Francisco's first championship run, most notably when he pitched eight shutout innings in Game 4 against the Texas Rangers.

Of course, there was Bumgarner's surreal performance in the 2014 World Series, in which he had a 0.43 ERA over 21 innings, including his memorable relief appearance in Game 7.

The four-time All-Star will have a feel of what it takes to survive and advance, as the lefty pitched a complete game shutout in the 2014 Wild Card game against the Pittsburgh Pirates to lead the Giants to an 8-0 win.

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