The San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics, both on the brink of elimination, came through big time on Tuesday. It took extra-inning for the Giants, who were only able to produce three hits against the Cincinnati Reds, but got that all important tie-breaking run in the 10th.

Oakland, however, relied on six shutout innings from Brett Anderson, who had not pitched in a game since straining his oblique against the very same Detroit Tigers some three weeks ago.

Both teams has a long-haul ahead of themselves, but it’s one day at a time in a survivor set-up that is the MLB postseason. You need to win one game in order to comeback and win a series.....Oakland and San Francisco accomplished that on Tuesday.

So, let’s take a look at what Wednesday has in store for these two teams looking to for a decisive game five later today.

Cincinnati Reds vs San Francisco Giants

Zito possesses a career 4-3, 3.25 split in seven postseason starts, all when he was with the Oakland Athletics. Simply put, Giants Manager Brucy Bochy went with the veteran over Tim Lincecum because the former has been a better pitcher in 2012. He provides the experience of pitching in do-or-die games on the road, though it has been a good seven seasons since he has been in a situation like this. 

Zito has started two games against the Cincinnati Reds this season and has been stellar in both. He possesses a 1.50 ERA against them this season in 12 starts, despite being 0-1 in terms of decisions. Joey Votto has just three hits in 18 career at-bats against Zito. Meanwhile, both Brandon Phillips and Jay Bruce have had success against the starting pitcher. They have gone a combined 13-for-33 (.394) against the lefy. 

By far the least impressive pitcher to go in this series, Leake possesses an ERA over 5.50 at home this season and has been tagged for at least four runs eight different times at Great American Ballpark. Needless to say, Cincinnati cannot feel too confident in their ability to have Leake go to far in this game. 

He is, however, 1-0 with a complete game in one start against the Giants this season. With that being said, Pablo Sandoval, Marco Scutaro, Buster Posey and Hunter Pence have gone a combined 19-for-39 against Leake in their careers with four homers. 

Oakland Athletics vs Detroit Tigers

Scherzer was might impressive on the road this season. He won 9-of-13 decisions away from Detroit, which should have Tigers' fans somewhat confident that they will be able to close the series out tonight. He pitched extremely well against the A's this season, striking out 13 in eight innings and recording a 3.24 ERA in two starts. 

With that in mind, three A's players have had a tremendous amount of success against Scherzer in their careers. Josh Reddick is 3-for-5, Coco Crisp has two hits in five at-bats and Brandon Moss is hitting .333. Meanwhile, top Oakland hitter Yoenis Cespedes walked in his only appearance against the Tiger' starter. 

One alarming statistic as it relates to this rookie pitcher is the fact that he is giving up one homer for less than every nine innings that he pitches. That is definitely not a good sign for the homestanding A's tonight. However, there is a ton for them to like about this matchup.  

Oakland is 8-1 in Griffin's nine home starts this season, the only loss coming at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays in early-August. Interestingly enough, Griffin went down to injury in that game. The youngster pitched into the fifth in his only career start against Detroit back in mid-September. The Tigers won that game 12-2 as the belted Griffin for eight hits and five earned in 4 2/3. Obviously the sample size really isn't too great here. 

Even if Oakland is able to grab Game 4, they have Justin Verlander stairing them directly in the face Thursday evening. Definitely an uphill battle even after taking Tuesday's game 2-0.