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We've seen this movie before, haven't we? The San Francisco Giants won an elimination playoff game on the strength of Madison Bumgarner. Just like in 2014, Bumgarner threw a shutout, though this one was much more dramatic than the blowout in Pittsburgh.

In fact, Mets ace Noah Syndergaard was matching zeroes with Bumgarner all night and the score was still 0-0 heading into the ninth. When Brandon Crawford doubled off Mets closer Jeurys Familia, however, it had a familiar feel for the Giants in this, an even year. Later in the inning, Conor Gillaspie hit a three-run home run that paved the way to the 3-0 Giants victory.

So now the Giants will move on to face the Cubs in the NLDS beginning on Friday. Now for some NL Wild Card Game things to know ...

Madison Bumgarner remains a playoff beast

You can always count on MadBum in the postseason. USATSI

Bumgarner of course spun a complete-game shutout against the Mets on Wednesday, and in the process he struck out six batters and allowed just four hits. As you know, Bumgarner has enjoyed tremendous levels of playoff success, especially by the standards of a 27-year-old.

Coming into the Wild Card Game, Bumgarner boasted a career playoff ERA of 2.14 and K/BB ratio of 5.13 in 14 games, 12 of which were starts. Then, of course, he goes out and blanks the Mets. Now he's worked 97 1/3 playoff innings with an ERA of 1.94. Perhaps most impressive is that he'll carry into the NLDS a playoff scoreless innings streak of 23.

Beast, is what we called him.

Conor Gillaspie's clutch HR was a minor miracle

Gillaspie is a bit of a journeyman, you know ...

So there's that. As well, he was in the Giants' lineup only because Eduardo Nunez injured his hamstring. And when he came up to bat in the ninth with one on and two out, he was opposing Jeurys Familia, one of the best closers in baseball and a pitcher who allowed exactly one home run in the regular season. He also hasn't allowed a home run to a left-handed batter in more than a calendar year. Still and yet, Gillaspie (and his 31 career homers) managed to do this ...

Ballgame, pretty much. Oh, as long as the subject is the unlikely nature of things ...

We'd be remiss if we didn't also drop this in (please note the time stamp) ...

Whoa.

Bumgarner got off to a ridiculously efficient start

Back to the beast for a moment. While his hirsute counterpart Mr. Syndergaard was racking up the strikeouts, Bumgarner was a study in brisk out-making. In fact, Mad Bum logged just seven pitches in each of the first three frames. On that note ...

Of those 21 initial pitches, 19 were fastballs. The pitches mounted for Bumgarner in the later innings, even as he continued hanging zeroes. However, those highly efficient first three frames set him up to go deep into the game. In fact, he didn't reach 100 pitches until the second out of the eighth inning. Not that Bumgarner's ever been particularly sensitive to pitch counts.

You can't blame Noah Syndergaard

Thor got into some tight spots later in the game, but he was absolutely electric for much of the time. In his seven scoreless frames, he struck out 10 and of his 108 pitches, 70 went for strikes. Particularly impressive is that nine of Syndergaard's strikeouts were of the swinging variety. There's also this ...

We knew Syndergaard was young and dominant, so consider his performance in the NL Wild Card Game to be his career to date writ small. Perhaps more impressive, though, is this ...

Noah Syndergaard threw 42 pitches 98+ mph tonight. That's more than the Phillies (41) and Indians (35) threw all year. #Thor

— Inside Edge (@InsideEdgeScout) October 6, 2016

And the people say: "Larduhmighty."

Curtis Granderson made the catch of his life

Curtis Granderson, while still a productive player overall, is nonetheless a 35-year-old who hasn't been a regular center fielder since 2012. That is to say, he's a questionable choice to start in center field in a do-or-die playoff game. Still and yet, Mets manager Terry Collins tabbed him to patrol center on Wednesday night.

As it turned out, Granderson's former fly-catching skills were called upon with two outs in the sixth and the speedy Denard Span in scoring position. Now let's check out some pretty color pictures of Grandy's covering some ground to deprive Brandon Belt of a clutch RBI ...

And some numbers ...

Not bad for an old man, even though it wound up not mattering all that much.

Syndergaard is bad at holding runners, but Rene Rivera may make him better

Syndergaard for his career has worked 333 2/3 innings, and over that relatively brief span he's allowed a whopping 63 stolen bases against just 10 times caught. Syndergaard is famously deliberate with his move to first, and by extension he's been among the worst in baseball at holding runners. Little surprise, then, that when the Giants finally got their first baserunner on the night in the person of Denard Span (via a walk to lead off the fourth) they tested Syndergaard. The throw and Span arrived at second base around the same time, and Span was called out. He strongly objected, but the play was upheld on review -- presumably because of a lack of "clear and convincing" evidence to the contrary -- despite Span's looking safe to the naked eye.

That said ...

Yes, quite possible he was indeed out.

Anyhow, that brings us to Mets catcher Rene Rivera. The throw that putatively extinguished Span was not his best, but broadly speaking Syndergaard appears to be a bit less feckless when it comes to holding runners when Rivera is behind the plate. For instance ...

Obviously, we're dealing with a small sample size on that one, but there's something to Rivera's arm helping out Syndergaard. This season, runners against Syndergaard have a stolen base percentage of 81.1 percent with Rivera behind the plate. That sounds bad, and it is, but consider that Syndergaard in the regular season allowed thefts at an 85.7 percent clip with Kevin Plawecki as his catcher and a rate of 92.3 percent when throwing to Travis d'Arnaud.

Yes, Syndergaard/Rivera would allow a stolen base to Span in the sixth, but it was a close play at the bag once again. So Rivera seems to be the kind of catcher who can help Syndergaard minimize his more glaring weakness.

Relive game commentary: