ESPN reports,
The San Francisco Giants determined that rest is more important than home-field advantage.Interesting. Of course, home field advantage isn't as meaningful because of the bizarre MLB rule that the best team can't play the wildcard team in the first round if the wildcard is in its division. So, the Giants are going to play the Marlins regardless of whether they are #1 or #2 in the National League, since the Marlins are in the same division as the Braves.The Giants won't travel to New York on Monday for a possible makeup game against the Mets that would have been necessary only if San Francisco finished the season a half-game behind Atlanta for the best record in the National League.
The NL West champions would rather skip the cross-country flights and stay in San Francisco ahead of Tuesday's Game 1 against Florida in the first round of the playoffs -- even if that means losing the home edge in the second round to Atlanta.
"Imagine the visual image if the Giants fly out late Sunday afternoon as the Marlins are flying in,'' Giants owner Peter Magowan said Saturday. "The Giants are supposed to have home-field advantage, and we're flying out of town. For an older team like us, we probably wouldn't recover as well as a younger team.''
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