Cardinals, Giants meet in NLCS for 2nd time in 3 years
Here we go again.
The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants are the class of the National League, meeting in the NL Championship Series for the second time in three years. St. Louis is looking to make its second consecutive World Series appearance, and fifth trip since 2004, while the Giants are in search of their third title in five years.
Since 2006, each franchise has won a pair of World Series championships.
"They remind me a lot of us," said Giants first baseman Brandon Belt. "They've had a lot of success in the postseason."
The almost uncanny similarities between the teams were apparent during the regular season, too.
Each team posted a 3.50 ERA and recorded a league-leading eight complete games. The Giants blew one more save than St. Louis, while the Cardinals struck out 10 more batters. Opposing teams hit .242/.308/.366 against St. Louis pitchers and .241/.297/.382 vs. the Giants.
Both teams pulled off upsets to reach this point, with San Francisco downing the NL's best regular season team in the Washington Nationals and the Cardinals taking out the 94-win Los Angeles Dodgers - owners of baseball's highest payroll - to make their fourth straight NLCS.
The Cardinals will look to exact revenge this time around after the Giants took them down in seven games in 2012.