The Same Story As Before

If you're like me, and you've had enough of the St. Louis Cardinals, that's too bad, because here they are, back in the NLCS for the 4th year in a row. It doesn't matter who's in their lineup or who's pitching for them, or who they face in the postseason, they always seem to find a way to win the necessary games. That includes beating Clayton Kershaw twice, because when you're the Cardinals, and you basically shit gold at every turn, you do things like that. In Game 1, they basically singled him to death in an 8-run, 7th inning rally. In the series finale on Tuesday, Kershaw was again cruising along until the 7th inning, when he gave up 2 singles, and then a massive 3-run Home Run to the Cardinals Duda-like 1st Baseman Matt Adams that gave the Cardinals a lead. The shell-shocked Dodgers could not recover and the Cardinals advanced once again.

The Cardinals are playing in their 4th NLCS in a row and they won 2 of the 3 prior. The team that beat them happens to be their opponent in this year's NLCS, the San Francisco Giants. The Giants, who have this every-other-year thing going on, are in the NLCS for the 3rd time in the last 5 years, and haven't lost one in that time period. In 2012, these two teams met, and although the Cardinals ran out to a 3 games to 1 lead and appeared primed to annoy their way into another World Series, the Giants fought back and won the final 3 games, shutting out the Cardinals twice and ended up riding their mojo all the way to a World Series Championship.

So, to boil it down to simple facts, there have only been two teams that have won the last 4 National League Championships. They're both playing for the pennant in 2014. How little has changed. Where the American League Championship features fresh teams and new faces, this series is teams that we as Mets fans don't like and have seen too much of. This is what I have to pick from? What happened to the Pirates? What happened to Washington? Well, both of them were victimized by The Giants, specifically Madison Bumgarner, Jake Peavy, Yusmeiro Petit and other, lesser known players like Brandon Belt and Joe Panik. Bumgarner pistolwhipped the Pirates in the Wildcard game, which was non-competitive. After beating the Nationals in Game 1 of the NLDS, Petit and Belt conspired to win an 18-inning marathon in Game 2, which featured a sterling 6 scoreless innings from the former, and a game-winning Home Run from the latter after a 9th inning comeback. The Giants dropped Game 3, but unfazed came back and waited around for the Nationals to predictably self-destruct in Game 4, which they did, and the Giants won the game and the series.

And now, here we are again. Which team do you dislike less I suppose is the key thing here, and for me, it's the Giants. Not that I have any particular reason to dislike them, but I will say that their recent run of overwhelming success has brought a spate of annoying fans out of the woodwork, which I suppose can happen to any team that finds success. Except for the Cardinals, whose fans are overbearing and annoying no matter how the team is doing (although let's face it, I find fans of just about any team that's not the Mets annoying, but to be fair, there are plenty of teams that I've never actually met a fan of). So because I'm sick of the Cardinals, I'm going to pick the Giants in this series, partially because I think they're the better team, and partially out of spite. It's nice to be well-informed about these things. Giants in 5-6.