The San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals are set to meet in the NLCS yet again, the fourth straight trip to this round for the Cards and the third in five years for the Giants. People must be getting real, real tired of these teams.
Nevertheless, this promises to be a knock-down, drag-out series between two very similar teams. Both are coming off of huge first round upsets and both are riding a wave of momentum they hope will carry them into the World Series. Here are five things to look for when the Giants and Cardinals meet yet again:
Will the Giants’ LHP neutralize the Cardinals LH bats?
Matt Adams, Matt Carpenter and Jon Jay ate the Dodgers for lunch in the NLDS, hitting a combined .359 with 4 HR and 12 RBI over the course of four games. If one of those guys comes up late in the game in a big spot, the Giants will rely on Javier Lopez and Jeremy Affeldt to put them away. Lopez especially needs to have a big series, as he’s coming off his most inconsistent year with the Giants and never quite looked like himself. Still, Lopez has a track record of coming up big in the postseason and the Giants are going to lean heavily on him in this series. The Cardinals’ lefties probably aren’t all that intimidated, considering how each of them knocked around Clayton Kershaw in the NLDS, but these lefty/lefty matchups will go a long way in determining the National League champion.
Is Adam Wainwright healthy?
The Cardinals’ ace has been bothered by a sore elbow to the point where, had there been a game 5 with the Dodgers, he likely would have missed the start. The Cardinals say he’s fine and he’ll start game 1 on Saturday, but just how healthy is he? The Dodgers knocked him around for six runs in his only NLDS start and he didn’t look very effective at all. It’s easy to chalk that up to a one-time fluke, but if his elbow is still balky the Giants are a good enough offense to exploit that. They already touched up Wainwright for seven runs back in May and aren’t intimidated by his resume; on the other hand, Wainwright also shut the Giants out for 7 2/3 innings in July. Will his elbow dictate which Wainwright shows up in game 1?
The Michael Morse factor.
The Giants have a better lineup than people tend to give them credit for, but the return of a healthy Morse would be a pretty major addition. Morse has had only a couple of at bats since the end of August, bothered by a strained oblique muscle that has taken over a month to heal. But he recently declared himself 100% and will likely be on the Giants’ NLCS roster. Calling Morse a liability in left field is an insult to liabilities, but he’s by far the team’s biggest power threat and his addition would lengthen out an already dangerous lineup; plus, it would allow Travis Ishikawa to go back to pinch hitting, a role in which he excels. If Morse truly is healthy and finds his way into the starting lineup, the Giants’ offense gets a big boost.
Like looking in a mirror.
Could these teams be more evenly matched? Both have solid starting pitching and bullpens. Both have long, dangerous lineups that don’t rely on the long ball but have hitters that can go deep at any time. Neither team has much speed. Both have all-world, MVP-caliber catchers that make their pitchers better. Both play solid defense. And both do the so-called “little things” well enough to give them an advantage over other teams. Honestly, these teams are so similar it’s almost impossible to pick a favorite. It might come down to health, and right now the Giants have the slight edge there considering Wainwright’s elbow. Aside from that, these are two talented, extremely similar teams going at it for a shot at the World Series. It should be incredibly entertaining.
Respect history.
This will be the fifth year in a row that either the Giants or the Cardinals represent the National League in the World Series, an astonishing feat considering the talent (and payrolls, in some cases) of teams like the Dodgers, Pirates, Nationals, Braves, Brewers, Reds, etc. These two teams know each other well and have a long history to draw from, most of it filled with bad blood. There have been a number of incidents between the two over the years, from Will Clark going after Jose Oquendo and Ozzie Smith, to Jeff Leonard’s one flap down home run trot, to Matt Holliday taking out Marco Scutaro on a hard slide and the Giants drilling him a few games later. Expect the bad feelings to continue and expect a hard-fought series from two bitter rivals.
