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No. 7: National League wild-card game: Mets vs. Giants

Madison Bumgarner burnished his incredible October reputation and an unexpected hero lifted the Giants over the Mets in the National League wild-card game.

The pitching duel we were all salivating over—October demigod Madison Bumgarner of the Giants versus the flowing locks and overpowering velocity of the Mets' Noah Syndergaard—went as expected: Both pitchers were stellar in the winner-take-all game, with Syndergaard matching Bumgarner zero for zero through seven innings. In the ninth, San Francisco finally broke through, as third baseman Conor Gillaspie—we'll pause here so you can look up Gillaspie's name and confirm that he’s a real person who actually did this—clubbed a game-winning–three-run homer off New York closer Jeurys Familia. Bumgarner went back out for the bottom of the ninth and retired all three hitters to complete his four-hit shutout.

CHEN: Bumgarner, Gillaspie team up for latest sign of Even-Year Magic