Here come the Giants, exactly the team the Cubs probably didn’t want to see in the NLDS

The San Jose Mercury News ^ | October 6th, 2016 | by Tim Kawakami

[Mariner]

So Conor Gillaspie in 2016 is Marco Scutaro from 2012 or Travis Ishikawa from 2014 or Cody Ross from 2010, at least for one enormous Wild-Card game and that means it could go on and on again…

And Madison Bumgarner in 2016 is… Madison Bumgarner, the perpetual postseason legend.

That’s a two-paragraph summary of the Giants’ scintillating 3-0 Wild-Card victory over the Mets tonight, and yes, obviously, the patterns and connections from the previous three Giants postseason trips are impossible to ignore.

You know who probably understands this better than anybody? That’d be the Cubs, who now face the Giants in the NLDS, starting with Games 1 and 2 at Wrigley Field on Friday and Saturday.

And just having Bumgarner out there, throwing up 0’s, calms everybody on the Giants roster, and just knowing that he’s on the team sets them up in every postseason series.

I think the Giants weren’t as stressed as another team would be going up against somebody like Noah Syndergaard, because they knew their guy probably would match Syndergaard, and would stay on the mound longer than Syndergaard.

–Key point: I am not in New York and am not covering the Giants in this first week of the postseason and the best reporting and analysis, as always, will come from those who are.

But I covered most of those previous Giants World Series runs–in 2010, 2012 and 2014–and what we all know is that the Giants are very, very difficult to kill off in October, even when they’re matched up against a more talented (on paper) opponent.

The Cubs are more talented. The Cubs are the most talented team in baseball.

[xp38]

We are now down to 4 possible matchups for the World Series.

Cubs Indians
Cubs Jays
Dodgers Indians
Dodgers Jays