By Pete Cava
PBR Indiana Correspondent 

INDIANAPOLIS – The curtain came down on the 2016 regular season Sunday, and ten teams now move on to post-season play.  

On Tuesday (Oct. 4), the Baltimore Orioles visit the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Wild Card game.  

In Wednesday’s National League wild card matchup, it’s the San Francisco Giants at the New York Mets. 

American League Division Series play starts Thursday (Oct. 6).  The wild card winner meets the Texas Rangers, while the Cleveland Indians host the Boston Red Sox. 

The NLDS opens Friday (Oct. 7).  The Los Angeles Dodgers are in Washington to play the Nationals, with the wild card team taking on the Chicago Cubs.   

Although rosters aren’t yet finalized, three Indiana natives are eligible for postseason play, along with a pair of former Indiana college players.  

The most postseason experience belongs to Orioles right-handed reliever Tommy Hunter (Indianapolis).  The 30-year-old Cathedral High School alumnus pitched for Texas in the 2010 ALDS, the A.L. Championship Series and the World Series.  He started for the Rangers and took the loss in Game Four of the 2010 Series against the Giants.  

Hunter also pitched for the Orioles in the 2012 and 2014 ALDS and the 2014 ALCS.  He started the year with Cleveland and rejoined the Orioles on August 25 after the Indians released him.  Overall, Hunter was 2-2 this year with a 3.18 earned run average in 33 appearances as a setup man.  

Jeff Samardzija (Merrillville) of the Giants is a former Notre Dame football standout.  The 31-year-old right-hander broke in with the Chicago Cubs in 2008 and pitched an inning in that year’s NLDS.  After spending 2015 with the Oakland Athletics, Samardzija signed with San Francisco as a free agent.  He had a 12-11 record with a 3.81 ERA this year as a member of the Giants rotation.  

Dodgers second baseman Micah Johnson (Indianapolis) spent most of the year at Oklahoma City (AAA Pacific Coast), where he batted .261 with five homers and 26 stolen bases.  The left-handed hitter saw action in seven games with Los Angeles, getting one hit in six at-bats for a .167 average.  Johnson, 25, who played for Park Tudor High School in Indianapolis, was drafted by the Chicago White Sox out of Indiana University in 2012. 

Native Hoosiers have been part of the World Series going back to 1903, when outfielder Chick Stahl (Avilla) and catcher Lou Criger (Elkhart) helped the Boston Pilgrims (today’s Red Sox) defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates five games-to-three in the first Fall Classic.   

Washington Nationals right-handed relief pitcher Aaron Barrett (Evansville) is sitting out postseason after spending the entire season on the disabled list.  The 26-year-old Evansville Central High School graduate had Tommy John surgery in September 2015 and underwent ankle surgery three months later.  

So will Cubs outfielder Kyle Schwarber, a Middleton, Ohio native who was Chicago’s first-round draft pick out of IU in 2014.  Schwarber suffered a knee injury in an outfield collision in the second game of the year on April 7 and underwent season-ending surgery. 

First baseman Trey Mancini could see postseason action with the Orioles.  Mancini, a Florida native, hit .357 with three homers in five contests with Baltimore.  He played college ball at Notre Dame. 

Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki is an Illinois native who played for Westfield High School and Purdue.  He batted .197 in 48 games in a backup role this year.     

Pete Cava is the author of Indiana-Born Major League Baseball Players:  A Biographical Dictionary, 1871-2014, published by McFarland.