Andrew McCutchen isn't a fan of the one-game wild card format
Pittsburgh has played in three straight wild-card games and lost the last two, so Andrew McCutchen is speaking from experience when he says he doesn't like the format.
By
Mike Axisa
•
1 min read
For the third consecutive year, the Pirates hosted the NL Wild Card Game at PNC Park in 2015. They won the 2013 Wild Card Game, but were shut out in both 2014 and 2015. After a 162-game grind, their season was over in nine innings.
Needless to say, the Pirates don't love the current wild card format, and superstar Andrew McCutchen is not afraid to say it. Here's what he told John Perrotto of the Beaver County Times on Wednesday:
"You run into a hot pitcher who has his best stuff and your season is over in one night," McCutchen said. "It really stings. You play all season to get to the playoffs and it doesn’t seem quite fair that you have no margin for error. It was hard to watch the rest of the playoffs (last year). We had big dreams."
MLBPA chief Tony Clark is scheduled to visit Pirates camp Friday, and McCutchen said he will talk to him about possibly changing the wild card format. "I’m not going to necessarily lobby the union for it, but I think it would be much more fair," said McCutchen, referring to a best-of-three series.
The 2014 Pirates won 88 games and were shut out by Madison Bumgarner in the Wild Card Game. The 2015 Pirates won 98 games (!) only to be shut out by Jake Arrieta in the Wild Card Game. It's no wonder McCutchen and Pirates don't like the format, right?
I would prefer a best-of-three format myself, but it's a logistical nightmare. MLB doesn't want to give the division winners too many days off between the regular season and LDS round, and then there's the issue of travel, especially if the series goes the full three games.
Of course, the one-game wild card format is here to stay for the foreseeable future because it makes for great TV ratings and ticket sales. The wild-card games are a Game 7 without those pesky Games 1-6. They've been very successful for MLB, and the league has little reason to change the format.
