San Francisco Giants Even Year Magic Running Out?

“They’ve been here before.” The phrase always seems to come up surrounding the San Francisco Giants in the postseason. They’ve been in almost every situation possible in the postseason since 2012, and have won eleven straight series.

The only thing the San Francisco Giants haven’t done is to come back from a three-game deficit. Only one team in history has ever done that. But there’s just something different about this team this season that signals the run is over. The personnel doesn’t seem to be there to do it this time, especially in this situation.

Down two games to nothing against a widely celebrated Cincinnati Reds team, the Giants won three straight on the road. They’ve done this before, but this year things feel different.

The Giants do have Madison Bumgarner, Matt Moore available to pitch games three, four and five. But this Cubs team is different from anything they’ve faced in the last three postseason runs.

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A team that has no holes and can do everything well. They get on base; they slug home runs, they pitch well from the rotation to the bullpen. It’s the Giants worse nightmare, a team built to its complete form.

They’re essentially a mirror image, of the 2012 Giants, maybe even better. And this might just be the year that they finally meet a team in the postseason built to beat them.

Comparing the 2016 Cubs to the 2012 Reds isn’t even close. Let’s go to the scorecard:

For comparison, we threw in the 2016 Washington Nationals as another comparison, just to give you some perspective.

Not only did the Cubs score more runs, and hit better, they also had the best ERA of any team in the National League. Their bullpen? They only blew 15 saves, compared to the Giants whopping 28.

The Giants have made it work against good teams in the past by being able to do the little things well. The San Franciso Giants are great at holding the mental advantage over their opponents by doing all the small things correctly. For some reason, it just doesn’t feel like they have that edge this year. Their opponent does.

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Yes, the Cubs are scary good this year. As much as it pains me to say, the Cubs are the scariest team in the playoffs. What’s worse, is that the Giants are down 0-2 to the scariest team in the postseason. History tells us not to doubt this core of players. But internally, we do. Has the magic run out?

The Giants have the ability to go with Madison Bumgarner, Matt Moore, and Jonny Cueto from here on out. Not too shabby a rotation to throw out for potentially three must-win games. Still, it feels different this year.

The Cubs are a different animal than what the Giants faced the last time they were in this position. The Giants also aren’t as strong as they were in 2012. Maybe getting home will give them a shot in the arm.

If it doesn’t, that’s ok. The Giants made it hard on themselves by getting into this position. So now the team has to do it the hard way. Without a doubt, they will be up to the task. The question remains if they can complete the task or not.

Next: Giants Lose Game One

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The Giants and Cubs square off in Game 3 of the NLDS on October 10th, at 6:38pm Pacific. You can watch the game on FS1.