By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner delivers the pitch in the first inning against the New York Mets at Citifield in the NL Wild Card game

Every other year, the Giants seem to have guys who rise to the occasion when the stakes are at their highest. Some, such as Conor Gillaspie, come through in their first taste of postseason action in the least likely of situations.

Others, such as Madison Bumgarner, simply do what they’ve always done when the bright lights are on.

The two teamed up Wednesday night, as Gillaspie’s three-run homer broke a scoreless tie in the top of the ninth inning to make Bumgarner’s four-hit complete-game shutout stand up, and the Giants topped the New York Mets, 3-0, in the National League’s wild-card game.

With that, the Giants earned a date to Wrigley Field to face the Chicago Cubs, for a five-game Division Series that starts Friday night. Jon Lester is expected to start for the Cubs, and that even though the Giants have not officially announced a starter, Johnny Cueto is very likely to take the ball.

But that does not happen if Bumgarner doesn’t do what he is accustomed to doing at this time of year.

In the process, he had to out-duel Mets starter Noah Syndergaard, who held the Giants scoreless over the seven innings that he was in the game.

“He’s got a focus that is hard to describe,” catcher Buster Posey said. “To come out and do what he did (Wednesday) night is pretty special. This is up there with the rest of his postseason performances.”

“As good as Syndergaard was – he was almost unhittable – there was still a calmness in the dugout, because we knew that Bum was going to give us a chance, and he did just that.”

The game remained scoreless until the ninth inning, when the Mets brought in closer Jeurys Familia, and the Giants took advantage when he ventured up in the strike zone. Brandon Crawford got things started when he ripped a double into the gap in left-center, and Joe Panik followed that up with a walk two batters later.

Conor Gillaspie, the next batter, saw a mistake pitch from Familia and wasted no time in sending it into the bullpen behind the right-field fence to push the Giants into the lead.

“As fired up as I was (after the hit), that (reaction) comes out once every 10 years,” Gillaspie said. “That’s just not my personality at all. But looking back, I’m glad I did it. That was definitely the biggest hit of my career.”

From that point, it was pretty much a no-brainer as to whether to leave Bumgarner in to finish things off and send the Giants to Chicago. The lefty then proceeded to close out the Mets by doing what he did for the previous eight innings.