NEW YORK -- Noah Syndergaard allowed just 11 home runs, but there's another way to round the bases quickly against the big right-hander. Syndergaard allowed 48 stolen bases this season, with just nine runners getting caught, a weakness that becomes glaring in October.
The Giants, however, won't be able to chip away with their speediest weapon. Eduardo Nuñez remains a long shot to be ready Wednesday, and even if he makes the Wild Card roster, a strained hamstring will keep him from running on Syndergaard. Nuñez was limited to a light workout Tuesday
"We're going to test him," Bochy said. "He's going to take some swings, go run a little bit, and we'll see where we're at."
Nuñez jogged in the outfield and then went back to the clubhouse. Team officials hope he's available to pinch-hit, but anything beyond that seems unlikely.
Conor Gillaspie appears a lock to start the biggest game of the year, and that might be a big positive given how Gillaspie has played over the past week. Gillaspie was 7-for-14 on the season-ending homestand.
"He's been great," catcher Buster Posey said. "Conor's definitely a team favorite. He's a good guy to have around and has really stepped in late with Nuñez taking a lot of the games down the stretch. That sometimes is not an easy thing to do, but I think that's a credit to Conor, being ready every day.
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"Whether he's pinch-hitting or possibly coming in later in the game when Nuñez was playing every day, I think that probably helped him stay ready for being able to step in."
The Giants will announce their lineup at around 10 a.m. out here on Wednesday.
--- The end of the 2014 run was so thrilling that it kind of pushed the Pittsburgh win to the back pages a bit. Posey and Hunter Pence lit up Tuesday when asked to recount that first Wild Card Game.
"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," Posey said. "I expect it to be the same here tomorrow. Shoot, that's the type of stuff when you're a kid that you dream about."
Pence called the 15 minutes before that game "the most intense atmosphere I've ever been a part of."
"You're just jumping right into it, and this huge, emotional, intense all-in, all-or-nothing game," he said. "It's definitely a wild ride. That's why they call it the Wild Card."
--- Only two of the final-week Giants did not make the trip to New York. Mac Williamson was sent to Arizona for a week of rehab, since a win Wednesday sends the Giants to Chicago and the most cramped clubhouse in the league. Williamson will rejoin the Giants if they return home Sunday. Gordon Beckham was not eligible for the playoffs since he wasn't in the organization on Sept. 1, so he flew home for the offseason, to watch and see if he's in line for a World Series ring.
--- Shawn Estes was the latest guest on my podcast. You can find it here. We talked about the second half, the final week, the wild card matchup, and his experiences with fans in New York and Chicago.
--- Pence has a wild thing going with the hair-beard combo, and it came up during his press conference. A local reporter asked him if it was something he came up with for the playoffs.
"Yeah, I just created this look instantaneously," Pence deadpanned. "It just showed up."
Pence later said that Hunter Strickland wasn't getting a haircut, so he joined in.
"It's not because I wanted to look like this, but because it's fun to do things that are crazy with your teammates," he said. "There are not too many jobs where you get the opportunity to look like a bum and have fun doing it."
