Sunday, October 14, 2012

NLCS: San Francisco v. St. Louis

The Giants and the Cardinals are two of the great franchises in baseball history, and they have quite a history with each other.  In 1934, the Cardinals nipped the Giants by two games to send the so-called Gashouse Gang to the World Series.  In 1964, the Giants finished only three games behind the champion Cardinals in one of the all-time great pennant races.  The Giants also finished second to St. Louis in 1967 and 1968 -- although neither of those races was very close.  The Cardinals also beat San Francisco in the 1987 NLCS, but the Giants beat St. Louis in the 2002 NLCS.

Even more striking than this old history is the fact that San Francisco and St. Louis are also the two most recent winners of the World Series -- making this the only time the NLCS has featured such a matchup.  Plus both teams put on spectacular, come-from-behind performances to reach the NLCS. Whatever happens, Giant and Cardinal fans have a lot to be proud of.

Here are the NLCS records of the two contenders, with pennant victories in bold:

San Francisco (3-2):  1971, 1987, 1989, 2002, 2010

St. Louis (5-4):  1982, 1985, 1987, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2011

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