Hot off the heels of their Wild Card game victory over the Mets, the Giants now set their sites on the top team in baseball this year, the Chicago Cubs. Here are five reasons why the Giants have the upper hand in the series.
The San Francisco Giants are set to embark on what many may feel is Mission: Impossible when their National League Division Series matchup against the Chicago Cubs gets underway on Friday night. This is a reasonable stance in some regards; the Cubs have gone wire-to-wire as the best team in baseball this year and show very few signs of weakness in their game.
However, looking a little further into things and it can be noted that the Giants themselves are not coming into this series with much apprehension. Putting aside the narrative of them being ‘even year’ champions or being able to solely ride Madison Bumgarner’s October magic alone to victory, they are a team that gave the Cubs fits this year in their seven previous games played this year.
So while the Cubs remain favorites going into this series, there are more than enough reasons to believe in these Giants as well. And here are five of the best ones.
5. Madison Bumgarner (nuff said)
At some point I think it is fair to wonder if Madison Bumgarner was sent from the baseball heaven in ‘Field of Dreams’ to be an October messiah. Or that he may have potentially gone the other way and sold his soul to be a legend of the fall. Whatever the process was, at age 27, Bumgarner has solidified himself as one of the great postseason pitchers of all-time. He pitched the Giants into another full-fledged playoff run on Wednesday evening, authoring another complete game shutout in an elimination scenario, a Major League record.
And if the Cubs do jump ahead on the Giants in the NLDS to a 2-0 lead, Bumgarner would have the task of saving the Giants’ season in his hands once again. At the very least, he will be pitching in an all-important matchup against Jake Arrieta in Game 3 of the series. His placement in the series is a gift and curse of sorts: due to pitching in the Wild Card play-in game, he could be relegated to only one appearance in the NLDS.
However, it is in a crucial spot that could either be putting the Giants ahead if they split in Chicago or, as mentioned before, once again saving their season. Either way, there is no better option to have on the hump this time of year – perhaps in baseball history.