The last two World Series Champions overcame the odds to wind up in the 2012 NLCS as the St. Louis Cardinals meet the San Francisco Giants. SBR will follow the series from start to finish, beginning with a preview and a pick for Sunday's Game 1 at AT&T Park
Last Monday morning, the Cincinnati Reds looked to be locks for the NLCS. All Dusty Baker's bunch had to do was win one of three midweek NLDS games on their home field.
Late into Friday evening, it was the Washington Nationals who seemed well on their way to join the Giants in the NLCS, the momentum from Thursday's walk-off carrying over to a big lead in Game 5 of their NLDS.
Neither of those teams will be there when the 2012 NLCS begins Sunday night. Instead, the collision for the National League pennant will come down to a battle between the last two World Series winners as the St. Louis Cardinals run into the San Francisco Giants. Quite frankly, it's a matchup I'm glad to see even if both the Cardinals and Giants lightened my wallet last week.
First and foremost, both teams proved their mettle with record-setting comebacks in the two NLDS. San Francisco became the first team to lose the first two games at home only to advance by winning the next three LDS contests on the road. Not to be outdone, St. Louis rallied from a record six runs down Friday night and shocked the Nats with a 4-run ninth inning to punch a ticket to the NLCS for the second straight postseason.
This has also been a pretty good rivalry over the years, and a rematch of two previous NLCS when the Cardinals topped the Giants in 1987 and San Fran returned the favor in 2002.
I usually don't get much enjoyment out of someone else's suffering and misfortune, but admittedly, a touch of Schadenfreude rose up watching the ninth inning of Game 5 between the Cards and Nationals. There isn't much about Washington D.C.
Ah, but I digress, and we have some baseball to discuss, starting with the Giants being -135 favorites Sunday and a 7 run total on the opening MLB odds.
Bumgarner & Lynn Climb Hill For Game 1
Stretched to the limit in their NLCS matchups, neither manager has his ace in line to make the start in Game 1. In fact, Mike Matheny and Bruce Bochy are each relegated to their No. 3 arms (at best) to get things rolling.
Madison Bumgarner answers the call for San Francisco looking to reverse a losing effort in Game 2 of the NLDS vs. Cincinnati , as well as turn around a poor close to the regular season. The Giants went 3-4 down the stretch behind their young lefty, Bumgarner posting a 5.94 ERA in those contests. He also dropped his two assignments vs. St. Louis this year (13.1 IP, 7 ER).
Lance Lynn counters for St. Louis after being the odd man out of the postseason rotation. He moves back into the starting mix due to the injury to Jaime Garcia, a nice fill-in for Matheny afterLynn led the Cardinals with 18 wins in 2012. His lone appearance vs. the Giants went into the loss column with six innings of work and four runs allowed.
Trying To Make Sense (& Dollars) Of The 2012 NLCS Matchup
The most glaring difference between the teams statistically is St. Louis ' offensive firepower. The Cardinals outslugged the Giants by a healthy margin, and outscored them 4.72 rpg to 4.43 rpg.San Francisco makes up for some of that by being a better road team (49-35 counting the playoffs) than the Cards (41-44).
The Giants do have home-field advantage for this series, but they failed to take care of business at AT&T Park vs. Cincinnati during the NLDS. Six regular season meetings between the Cardinals and Giants were split down the middle, including the two games in San Francisco where the totals also halved.
Travel into San Francisco shouldn't be a factor for Game 1; the Giants hung around Cincinnati until after the Cardinals completed their Friday match, meaning both teams arrived just a few hours apart on Saturday morning. Neither should weather be an issue for the first two games. Forecasts currently call for a very slight chance of precipitation on Sunday and Monday, with temps in the upper-60s for the two evening affairs.
My good run during the final three months of the regular season didn't follow me into the playoffs where I'm 5-6 (-1.0 unit), so perhaps I'm ripe for fading. AT&T Park
My pick: Over 7 (+100) +++
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий