Buctober is back and it all starts Wednesday, Oct 1, when the Pirates and Giants will do battle on the North Shore at PNC Park on ESPN at 8:07 p.m..

The Pirate were on fire in the month of September; they went 18-9 and passed the Giants in the standings, and this gave the Pirates the opportunity to host the 1 game Wild Card playoff which is a huge advantage.

There is an interesting pitching match up that will be going down, as the visiting Giants will send lefty Madison Bumgarner to the mound to face Pirate righty Edinson Volquez.

Heading into the game, there is reason to believe that the Pirates will dominate the pitching side of the ball as Volquez has a 5-0 record with an ERA under 1.50 in his last 10 starts.

Bumgarner did not fair so well against the Pirates in his 1 start against them this year. On July 28th, Bumgarner went 4 IP, 6 H, and 5 ER, which shows that the Pirates can muster runs against the lefty.

Against Pittsburgh, the Giants have had a 5-12 record at PNC Park and have gone 11-14 overall over the past four years.

Turn back the clock to last postseason, the Reds came into Pittsburgh to face the Pirates and the Bucs took them down 9-2.

This being said, this Pirate team has recent experience in a difficult one game Wild Card game that the current Giants roster is lacking.

Besides the pitching match-up , the Pirates also have the advantage around the infield, which include 2B and 3B. At SS, it is a toss up as Jordy Mercer and Brandon Crawford are practically the same player and have identical statistics.

At 2B, the Pirates send experienced veteran Neil Walker to oppose rookie 2B Joe Pankik. Walker hit 23 home runs this year, which is the most for any Pirate middle infielder of all-time, and he also hit a solid .271 this year.

At 3B, the Pirates have runner up NL batting crown winner Josh Harrison, this is already an advantage in itself as the Giants have Pablo Sandoval who is hitting .218 in the month of September.

Take a look at the outfields for both teams, the Pirates have Marte, McCutchen, and Snider, head of to the San Fran outfield and you have Ishikawa, Blanco, and Pence.

In left and center, the Pirates have a huge advantage offensively and defensively that the Giants don’t possess.

In left, the Pirates will be sending out Starling Marte and he will be opposed by former Pirate first baseman Travis Ishikawa.

Marte hit .291 this season and was also one of three players to hit 10 homers and swipe 30 bags, joining Carlos Gomez and Jacoby Ellsbury.

Ishikawa is an injury replacement player after injuries to outfielders Michael Morse and Angel Pagan. Also, Ishikawa only hit .252 this season and isn’t the fleetest of feet in the outfield.

In center, 2013 NL MVP Andrew McCutchen will obviously be starting and not to many players and baseball can compare to his abilities, Blanco isn’t one of them.

After seeing a few position by position breakdowns, I think it is obvious that we all know who is going to come out of Wednesday’s NL Wild Card game victorious…….the Pirates.