The Wild Card Series are split between home and road teams, with the Seattle Mariners and New York Mets winning on the road in game threes to set up Division Series against the Yankees and National respectively while the Rangers and the Cardinals enjoy home sweeps over the Blue Jays and Rockies to set up series against Stewarts former team the Royals and current team the Giants.
The Cardinals-Giants series will be the 7th post season match up between the two sides, making St Louis the most common NL post season opponent for San Francisco. This will be a rematch of the Giants last post season appearance, in 2047, when the Cardinals comfortably won the series 3-1 also as the Wild Card.
The teams split the regular season series 3-3, with the Giants taking 2-3 in the final series of the season to secure their place in the postseason. Making Stewart feel old is the fact that the Cardinals are managed by former Royals player Tim Storer, who played for Stewart from 2031-2036.
The Cardinals are a fairly balanced team, ranking 6th in both runs scored and against. A strong batting line up was led by 2B Julio Roca, who hit .283 with 31 HRs and 99 RBIs, all team highs. SS Chad Schmidt had a 20-20 season with 27 HRs to go with 38 SBs while adding 90 RBIs. Schmidt has had to move over to SS from 3B, as St Louis are missing starting SS Luis Ortega. They are a team that struggled against LHP but with Cason Willard the only LHP among the Giants staff this is unlikely to see a big change to pitching plans.
On the pitching side, Luis Moreno led the team with a 3.93 ERA as part of an all RHP rotation. The bullpen is where the talent lies in this team, with Closer Pat Black recording 37 SV with a 3.55 ERA while leading the team in wins, with 11. He was ably supported by SU Dan Kauffman, the former 11th round pick by Stewart for the Royals in 2042, with a 2.12 ERA in 46.2 IP while Josh Collins also recorded an ERA under 3.00.
Game 1 in San Francisco: Andy Frederick vs Luis Moreno (2052 Free Agent)
- San Francisco wins 10-7
- Frederick (W): 5.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R
- Moreno: 0.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R
- Randy Cameron (L): 3.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R
- Rickey Martino (SV): 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R
- St Louis HRs: Jesus Palos (3rd, 2R), Nelson Mora (8th, 3R)
- Luis Moreno (STL) INJ pitching DTD 1 day
- POTG: Jaquan Willie (SF) 3-4, BB, 2 RBI
- 1-0 San Francisco
Game 2 in San Francisco: Juan Montoya vs Christoph Bondar (2049 Free Agent)
- San Francisco wins 7-6 (10)
- Montoya: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R
- Bondar: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R
- Juan Peralta (W): 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R
- Sanik Gearhart (L): 0.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R
- Martino (BS): 1.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R
- San Francisco HRs: Wilfredo Polo (7th), Mike Berger (8th, 2R), Steve Boyd (8th, 3R)
- St Louis HRs: Julio Roca (3rd, 2R)
- 2-0 San Francisco
Game 3 in St Louis: Jesus Barbosa vs Nelson Briones (2039 Scouting Discovery)
- San Francisco wins 6-5
- Barbosa: 0.1 IP, 7 H, 5 R
- Briones: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R
- Joe Manley (W): 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R
- Pat Black (L)(BS): 1.0 IP. 3 H, 3 R
- Juan Peralta (SV): 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R
- St Louis HRs: Chad Schmidt (1st), Tanner Meilleur (1st, 2R), Marc Bauser (1st)
- Donte Lebeaux (SF) INJ pitching DTD 4 days
- POTG: Kevin Dobbs (SF) 2-2, BB
- 3-0 SAN FRANCISCO WINS
Series MVP: Steve Boyd (SF) 4-13, HR, 4 RBI