Oct. 06--Either the Pirates or Cubs will go home Wednesday night despite having the second- and third-best records in major-league baseball.
But at least the losing team can say it reached the postseason, a feat the 1993 Giants didn't achieve despite winning 103 games -- six more than the 2015 Cubs.
"I remember feeling pity for our guys," said Cubs television analyst Jim Deshaies, a late-season addition to the '93 Giants. "Guys were weeping in that clubhouse."
The Giants led by nine games with 47 left, but the Braves embarked on an incredible run while the Giants lost eight consecutive games that eventually put them at a four-game deficit with 17 left.
The Giants caught the Braves with three games left but were clobbered by the Dodgers 12-1 on the final day of the regular season, more than three hours after the Braves had beaten the expansion Rockies for the 13th consecutive time.
"I remember getting on that bus and we were thinking, 'What in the world just happened?' " recalled Cubs bench coach Dave Martinez, a valuable backup outfielder on the '93 Giants. "We felt we had the best team. We thought we were going to be in the playoffs, but what just happened?"
Former Cubs TV analyst Bob Brenly, then a coach with the Giants, added: "We picked the wrong time to play one bad game."
The wild card was implemented after that season along with a three-division format in each league, with the team with the best record facing the wild-card team as long as they weren't in the same division.
With the addition of a second wild card in 2012 and one game to determine who advances, the stakes are raised for the wild-card teams.
"That's inherent in the system now, even when it's not a great team," Deshaies said. "That play-in game will have such high expectations with two teams with a chance to make a deep run in the postseason.
"You've got to win 12 games, but you've got to win the first one. If you don't go 1-0, you're done."
Brenly, now an announcer with the Diamondbacks, lent caution to the Cubs and their followers.
"As well as the Cubs have been playing this year, anything can happen," Brenly said. "It's a real crapshoot."
mgonzales@tribpub.com
