Wild best? Pick a card: O’s-Jays, SF-Mets

Moments before the Giants and Pirates played the National League Wild Card Game in 2014, Hunter Pence motioned to his teammates inside the visiting clubhouse at PNC Park and offered some context for the day.

“We’re here because we weren’t good enough to win our division,” he said simply. “But this game allows us a chance to keep playing. If you’re a competitive person, you love that opportunity.”

There you go.

If you want to know why these AL and NL Wild Card Games are so appealing — and why Tuesday’s Orioles-Blue Jays showdown (8 p.m. ET on TBS) and Wednesday’s Mets-Giants tilt (8 p.m. ET on ESPN) are Must See TV — that’s it. In just four seasons, they’ve already delivered some classic baseball.

For instance:

2014 NL Wild Card Game Giants 8, Pirates 0

Giants ace Madison Bumgarner began one of the great postseason runs any player has ever had by pitching a complete-game shutout. Twenty-eight days later, Bumgarner was the hero again as the Giants beat the Royals, 3-2, in Game 7 of the World Series.

That opportunity of which Pence spoke, the Giants took it and ran with it, becoming the first — and thus far only — Wild Card Game winner to capture the World Series since MLB added a second Wild Card spot and winner-take-all Wild Card Game in ’12.

2014 AL Wild Card Game Royals 9, Athletics 8 in 12 innings

This surely is the best Wild Card Game we’ve seen thus far, a 4-hour, 45-minute marathon that evolved from a mere game into an epic contest of wills. The Royals won it, 9-8, after rallying from a 7-3 deficit in the eighth inning and an 8-7 deficit in the 12th.

The Royals are the only other Wild Card winner to even play in a World Series, and that victory in ’14 propelled them to a great two-year run in which they went to the Fall Classic in two straight years and won it in ’15.

2015 NL Wild Card Game  Cubs 4, Pirates 0

This was arguably the best Wild Card matchup, a 98-win Pirates team against a 97-win Cubs club. They both finished behind a 100-win Cardinals club in the stacked NL Central.

That day might have offered the best Wild Card pitching matchup we’ve seen — Jake Arrieta (No. 2 in ERA) against Gerrit Cole (No. 7) — until this year, but more on that below.

Arrieta was at his Cy Young best, pitching a five-hit, zero-walk, 11-strikeout shutout in a 4-0 victory. Having lost back-to-back Wild Card Games to Bumgarner and Arrieta, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle summed it up thusly: “Sometimes, you draw a tough bull.”

One reason the Wild Card Game is so appealing is that it’s unique. It’s just one shot. It’s nine months of work on the line in one game. This high-wire act makes for splendid …

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