For all you baseball fans out there, we have a rematch of the 2012 NLCS coming up this weekend. The St. Louis Cardinals will host the San Francisco Giants in Game 1 of the series and have tabbed Adam Wainwright as the starter.
The Giants have yet to announce their starter, but it's speculated it will be Madison Bumgarner, who last pitched on October 6 in a losing effort against the Washington Nationals. Bumgarner also started the team's wild card matchup against the Pittsburgh Pirates that they won 8-0 at PNC Park. He should be ready to go for Saturday night after sufficient rest.
But both teams have largely struggled with their offensive production. The Giants scored just 9 runs in four games against the Washington Nationals, and aside from their 10-run Game 1 performance against the Dodgers, the Cardinals scored only eight runs and had 20 hits in their other three games of the NLDS. And that's not good news for either of these teams because they'll be facing tough pitching yet again.
The Giants will have their ace Bumgarner (4-3 with a 2.96 ERA in the postseason), Jake Peavy (1-3 with a 7.39 ERA), Tim Hudson (1-3 with a 3.19 ERA) and Ryan Vogelsong (3-0 with a 1.19 ERA). Despite Peavy's poor numbers, he's an experienced veteran pitcher who has helped the Giants immensely since his arrival in a trade from Boston in July.
For St. Louis, they'll send out Wainwright (4-3 with a 3.13 ERA in the postseason), Lance Lynn (5-4 with a 4.57 ERA in 22 appearances and six starts), John Lackey (7-5 with a 2.92 ERA) and Shelby Miller (0-0 with a 4.50 ERA). This staff managed to hold the Dodgers to only six runs in the final three games of the NLDS.
The Cardinals will be looking for revenge from the 2012 NLCS after which the Giants won the final three contests to beat St. Louis in seven games and advance to the World Series. San Francisco then swept the Detroit Tigers in the World Series and claimed their second title in three years. This is the Giants' third postseason appearance in the past five seasons, and their other two berths have resulted in World Series championships (2012, 2010).
San Francisco bested St. Louis in the regular season series 4-3 and Bumgarner beat Wainwright in the four-game set that took place between May 29 and June 1. But Wainwright defeated the Giants in July after tossing 7 2/3 scoreless innings. We'll see how Game 1 plays out when the two are likely to face off for the second time this season.
FOX will broadcast Game 1 of the series, which will take place on Saturday, October 11 at 8:00 p.m. in St Louis.
