San Francisco Giants
vs.
Chicago Cubs
Series Preview and Pick
By: Jason Green
The Giants won a dramatic NL Wild Card with a HR in the 9th inning breaking a scoreless tie in a 3-0 win over the New York Mets. They now face the Chicago Cubs, who had the best record in baseball. Is this the year the Cubs’ drought ends? Well, first they have to get past the Giants.
History is with San Francisco, as in the last 3 even years of 2010, 2012, and 2014 they have won the World Series. Just a reminder it is an even year this year. However, the Cubs have home field in this series and they have won 7 of their last 8 Games facing the Giants. Still, the Giants come into this series with confidence not only beating the Mets in New York in the Wild Card Game, but they have also won five straight overall.
Pitching
Both teams have a stacked pitching staff and on the season the Cubs ranked 1st in team ERA and the Giants ranked 4th. Game 1 has a killer pitching match up with Johnny Cueto facing Jon Lester. Chicago has a tough call with so many solid starters, but Kyle Hendricks Jake Arrieta will be the Game 2 and 3 starters. For the Giants Jeff Samardzija will get the Game 2 start and Madison Bumgarner will get the Game 3 start.
Besides having home field advantage another thing the Cubs have going for them they will probably only face Giants Ace Madison Bumgarner once after he pitched a gem in the Wild Card Game. Chicago has the edge when it comes to the bullpen, which is a concern for San Fran facing the loaded Cubs’ lineup.
Lineup
The Cubs ranked 3rd in the Majors in runs scored and they definitely have the advantage on offense. Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo should bot get MVP consideration and overall the Chicago lineup is solid up and down the order. The Giants only rank 19th in the Majors in runs scored and while they got it done as a team they did not have one player this season that had over 17 HR and 84 RBI. Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, and Brandon Crawford will have to step up at the plate in this NLDS.
Series Schedule
FRI. OCT. 7 San Francisco vs. Chicago
SAT. OCT. 8 San Francisco vs. Chicago
MON. OCT. 10 Chicago Cubs vs, San Francisco
TUE. OCT. 11 * Chicago Cubs vs, San Francisco
THUR. OCT. 13 * San Francisco vs. Chicago
*if necessary
Series Prediction: This is a tough series to call with the Cubs being the best team in the regular season and the Giants and their post-season magic in the last few years. I would make another pick if Bumgarner would be making 2 starts in this series and that will not happen, as if he pitched Game 5 he would be working on 2 days rest. However, seeing him once the Cubs will get to the other San Fran starters and the Cubs will take this series in 4 Games.