It doesn’t get any worse than facing Madison Bumgarner in the one-game wild-card playoff.
Just ask the Pittsburgh Pirates, who ran into the Bumgarner buzzsaw last fall.
“If you don’t want to pitch in these games, you probably need to find something else to do,” Bumgarner told the Associated Press, via ESPN.com, after authoring a four-hit shutout and punching out 10, as the San Francisco Giants dispatched the Bucs 8-0.
On that night at PNC Park, the Giants set the template for how to be a nightmare matchup in the one-game wild-card clash: Lead with an ace, and mix in some timely hitting. While the Giants didn’t need any relievers in that game, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have an airtight bullpen.
For the purpose of this list, division leaders were excluded from consideration. That means you won’t see a team like the New York Mets, who have all sorts of aces they could throw in the wild-card playoff. But there was room for the team that opposed the Giants last fall.