Eduardo Nunez has been left off the San Francisco Giants Wild Card Game roster with a hamstring injury. On the season, Nunez was hitting .288/.325/.432 with 24 doubles, four triples, 16 homers, 67 RBI, and 40 stolen bases. With Nunez off the roster, the Giants are now without their biggest stolen base threat.
For the most part, the Giants are a team without a lot of team speed. After Nunez, Angel Pagan and Denard Span are the only two Giants players who have had double digit stolen bases this season. It could be hard for Pagan and Span to utilize their speed on the base paths as they are a combined 0-11 off of Noah Syndergaard.
It should be noted that in the Mets first matchup against the Giants, the Giants did exploit Syndergaard’s issues holding on base runners. In that game, the Giants were a perfect 3/3 in stolen base attempt. From that game, Brandon Crawford will be on the only Giants player active tonight. In the second match-up between the Mets and the Giants, Syndergaard was paired with Rene Rivera, and the Giants were 0/2 in stolen base attempts. As it so happens, Nunez was one of the two people thrown out by Rivera.
Overall, the Giants are most likely going to look to exploit Syndergaard’s difficulties holding on base runners. The fact that the Giants are going to play this game without their best base stealer, only serves to hamper their chances to exploit this and get runners into scoring position in what should be a low scoring game.
PITCHERS (11)
Madison Bumgarner
Santiago Casilla
Johnny Cueto
George Kontos
Derek Law
Javier Lopez
Steven Okert
Sergio Romo
Jeff Samardzija
Will Smith
Hunter Strickland
CATCHERS (2)
Trevor Brown
Buster Posey
INFIELDERS (6)
Ehire Adrianza
Brandon Belt
Brandon Crawford
Conor Gillaspie
Joe Panik
Kelby Tomlinson
OUTFIELDERS (6)
Gregor Blanco
Gorkys Hernandez
Angel Pagan
Jarrett Parker
Hunter Pence
Denard Span
