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NEW YORK -- When the San Francisco Giants got the slimmest of leads in the race for the National Leagues final wild-card spot about 10 days ago, it turned out to be a season-ending mistake by the team they were jostling with, the St. Louis Cardinals. It may also have unleashed something devastating on every other team still competing for a World Series ring.Its October and its an even year.The Giants got a little momentum going and weve seen them do that plenty of times, Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter said.The San Francisco Giants are at it again, trying to add a 2016 title to a 2014 title, a 2012 title and a 2010 title. Is there a pattern here? The latest wrinkle isnt even a new wrinkle. Once again, the Giants have to survive a winner-takes-all wild-card game, on the road, to get to their goal. Two Octobers ago, they went into an absolutely rollicking PNC Park in Pittsburgh and, behind Madison Bumgarners complete-game shutout, beat the Pirates 8-0.I remember just walking in from the bullpen in Pittsburgh and thinking and taking a second to look around, because even 10-15 minutes before the game, it was rocking, Buster Posey said. I expect it to be the same here tomorrow.New York Mets fans might want to consider trying something new to get Bumgarner a little rattled Wednesday in an 8 p.m. ET National League wild-card game on ESPN: eerie silence. Making a lot of noise and yelling nasty things at him doesnt seem to work. Bumgarner has a 0.60 ERA in postseason road games, the best mark of its kind in baseball history.Its not like hes bad at AT&T Park. Bumgarner is 7-3 with one save and a 2.14 ERA in 14 postseason games. Its almost as if October baseball games are his native habitat. He has been pitching in the World Series since a couple of months after he turned 21.I think, like a lot of great athletes and pitchers, he is just really good in the moment, Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. Theyre such good competitors. They dont let the game itself, the magnitude of the game, bother them.In the four years of the one-game wild-card format, the team that starts the more-experienced starting pitcher has won seven of the eight games. The lone exception was the Giants in 2014, when Bumgarner, in his fourth full season, easily out-pitched veteran Edinson Volquez. If the Mets are to buck that trend, theyll at least have Noah Syndergaards 2015 October experience in their corner. He made four postseason starts and had a 3.32 ERA, including a strong outing in Game 3 of the World Series.Mets manager Terry Collins was asked Tuesday what can be done to slow down the Bumgarner Express in October. The only thing he could grab onto was using Bumgarners aggressiveness against him, where thats possible.Like all great pitchers, he throws strikes, Collins said. So, the one thing youve got to go up with is a little bit of a plan. Try to get something you can handle and dont miss it. Dont foul it off. Put it in play.For much of August and September, the Giants seemed to be playing themselves out of postseason contention. But that doesnt just seem possible when the year in question is divisible by two. The Giants rallied late, winning six of their last eight games, including their last four, to keep the Cardinals at bay. Needless to say, the Giants dont have much to say about the even-year phenomenon.Doesnt matter what number they call the year, Hunter Pence said. Its right now and its a game between the Giants and Mets, playing what we love to do, playing for what we dream about.Whats to be made of the even-year pattern? A lot of theories have been floated for the Giants every-other-year dynasty. The most reasonable is that the extra innings burden on the pitchers tends to lead to a hangover effect the following season. In 2014, for example, the Giants piled 52? postseason innings on top of the 217? Bumgarner had already pitched in the regular season. Even that one is easily sliced and diced, though. Bumgarners 2015 season was almost identical to his 2014 season. He pitched just one more inning, in fact. He said he wishes he had an explanation for the teams back-and-forth fortunes.There is no sense in having to take a year off after youve had that long season, he drawled.Other than being able to throw one of the best pitchers in the game and one of the most ferocious competitors in sports at the other team, the Giants also present a few other matchup problems in October. They dont beat themselves, which sometimes feels like half the battle in loud, chaotic environments.The Giants are one of the best-fielding teams in baseball. Their 70 defensive runs saved (DRS) ranked third in baseball and their infielders ranked even higher. They dont strike out much. They had the second-best strikeout rate in the majors. Six of the past 10 teams to reach the World Series finished in the top five of the majors in strikeout rate.Its as if this team were designed by scientists somewhere to excel in the most pressure-packed games. Now it has been set loose on the world. Cheap Air Force One China .com) - The game was all punts and field goals before Kodi Whitfields catch. Cheap Wholesale Nike Sb Shoes . Rob Manfred, baseballs chief operating officer, testified last week during the grievance filed by the players union to overturn Rodriguezs 211-game suspension. A person familiar with the hearing, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press on Saturday that Manfred testified the sport wasnt concerned whether Bosch distributed performance-enhancing drugs to minors because MLBs interest was his relationship with players under investigation. http://www.airforce1nearme.com/sb-shoes-outlet-near-me.html . But by the time the game started, the Toronto Raptors forward felt even worse. And, for three quarters, it showed as Gay shot a woeful three-for-13 from the field. Wholesale Air Force 1 . On June 12, just as the sun sets on the magnificent historical city of Sao Paulo the inventors, innovators and purveyors of “joga bonitowill” open their campaign. The opponent, Croatia and all its football might and will. As opposites do attract we are set for a corker of an opener. Fake Air Force 1 For Sale . "I dont know that were close," said general manager Alex Anthopoulos. "I just think, right now, the acquisition cost just doesnt work for us right now. I dont know if I can quantify how far off or things like that that they might be but I would say we continue to have dialogue. RIO DE JANEIRO -- When Simone Manuel touched the wall to clinch a gold medal Saturday night, it was a moment 120 years in the making.The U.S. womens 4x100-meter medley relay team of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Manuel -- winners at the Rio Games on Saturday night -- is being recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee as delivering the nations 1,000th gold medal in Summer Olympics history.By their count, anyway. Keeping count of the gold total is not as exact a science as one might think.The count accepted by the U.S. Olympic Committee coming into the Rio Games was 977 gold medals, and even that was adjusted a bit in recent weeks over a debated medal from the 1904 St. Louis Games. That means the gold medal in the womens eights on Saturday morning was the 21st for the Americans in Rio, and No. 998 overall. Some sites say theres a few more, some say a bit less. The USOC count is the accepted one.And the relay win was No. 23 in Rio, so by the USOCs count that made it official.A gold medal is like a newborn baby, said long jumper Jeff Henderson, who put the U.S. on the brink with gold No. 999 earlier Saturday night. Its just lovely.Lovely, 1,000 times over now for the Americans.A remarkable achievement made possible by the culture of sport that is the fabric and foundation of Team USA, USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said Saturday night.James Connolly won the first for the U.S. in 1896, and of course no one has added more to the total than Michael Phelps, a 23-time gold medalist. Illustrating how not-so-simple this medal-counting business is, the official info portal for the Rio Games even has a different number than the USOC, saying the one the Americans will recognize as No. 1,000 is really No. 1,001.Whatever the real number, the U.S. is the first to reach four figures -- in a landslide. The Soviet Union remains No. 2 on the all-time summer gold list, and no other nation has even reached 500.Heres the significance: The next four best nations had 1,004 gold medals coming into Rio, said Bill Mallon, an Olympic historian. You add up the next four and they barely have more than we do.At its current rate, China wouldnt reach 1,000 golds until 2100. Germany wouldnt get there until 2204.But there have been some very interesting story lines on the U.S. road to 1,000. Consider some of them:THE DEMONT CASEIf Rick DeMont had his way, gold medal No. 1,000 would really be identified as gold medal No. 1,001.Or maybe even No. 1,002.DeMont was 16 when he won gold in the 400-meter freestyle at the Munich Games in 1972. But he tested positive for ephedrine, which was part of his asthma medication, and stripped of the medal days later along with a chance to compete in a 1,500-meter event.His saga, however, doesnt stop there.DeMont tried for decades to get the medal back, saying he was wronged because the USOC did not properly disclose to Olympic officials that he was on medication -- and that if they had done so, his ephedrine level would not haave led to his ban.ddddddddddddIn 2001, the USOC recognized DeMont for his achievements and said it was bringing him back into the Olympic family.But the International Olympic Committee -- in part out of concern for setting a precedent that could lead to enormous numbers of athletes contesting results -- declined later that year to consider restoring DeMonts gold over the USOC paperwork mix-up. So the gold remains awarded to Bradford Cooper of Australia. Cooper now owns a swimming school in his homeland while DeMont is the swimming coach at Arizona.It was so long ago that it almost seems like it happened to another person in another life, DeMont said Saturday. I dont carry it with me.THE ST. LOUIS GAMESNo matter how well the U.S. does in these Rio Games, the medal count this year wont come close to the St. Louis Games in 1904.Officially, heres the count from that Olympics for the U.S.: 79 golds (it had been 78 until recently, when one medal that was counted as being won by a mixed-nationality team was added to the U.S. total because five of the six members were Americans, along with one Austrian), 78 silver and 79 bronze -- 236 medals in all.Germany was second in the medals standings, with 13.There is no wrong or right, Mallon said. Its an interpretation.The Olympic website describes those St. Louis Games as being lost in chaos. They lasted nearly five months, had a marathoner disqualified for using a car on the route, saw gymnast George Eyser win six medals despite having a wooden leg and featured events such as dumbbells and tug-of-war.About half the official competitions in those games had only American entrants, and some historians have suggested that even some of the athletes who are listed as part of the U.S. team likely were newly arrived immigrants who either hadnt become citizens yet or never actually completed that process.THE 1906 GAMESYou might not know about them, since they dont count.Held in Athens, Greece, they were considered an Olympics at the time -- though arent now recognized by the IOC, so the medal counts appear in no official lists. Though unlike the St. Louis Games two years earlier, this had more of a normal Olympic program.There were 78 events and medals were awarded; there even was a true opening ceremony. The U.S. was second to France in the medal standings, winning 12 golds to their 15.So while little debates and differing counts will likely continue, the U.S. dominance isnt in question. And maybe it was fitting that Phelps, the most decorated Olympian ever with 28 medals helped start the march toward the next milestone Saturday night, when the final swim of his career -- part of a win in a relay -- delivered gold No. 1,001.Its the Olympics, said U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky, a five-time winner of Olympic gold. Its the pinnacle of our sport ... and we feed off of each other. ' ' '