Quote:
Originally Posted by BigRedChief
From a Tom Verdacci column
While the Royals (no pennants since 1985) and Orioles (no pennants since 1983) decide which drought will end, it seems like the Cardinals and Giants have been fighting over the NL flag every year. Since the wild-card system began in 1995, there have been more NLCS played with either St. Louis, San Francisco or both (11) than without (9).
The Cards and Giants have been especially good in October over the past five seasons. Since 2010, they have:
• Filled seven of the past 10 spots in the NLCS.
• Won all five NL pennants (with the latest to be decided between them).
• Gone 49-14 (.778) in postseason games against all other teams.
• Gone 15-1 in postseason series against all other teams (including Wild-Card Games).
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More fun facts
San Francisco has won the last seven games in which it faced elimination (six in the 2012 postseason plus this year's Wild-Card Game), five of those coming on the road.
Since 2010, the Giants have survived eight rounds across three postseasons without being eliminated once despite being the underdog in nearly every case.
St. Louis, meanwhile, is 7-2 when facing elimination since 2011, with one of its two losses coming against San Francisco in Game 7 of the 2012 NLCS and the other in Game 6 of last year's World Series. What's more, in two of those victories, the Cardinals were down to their last strike (twice in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series, then again in Game 5 of the Division Series against the Nationals the next year) before coming back to win not just the game, but also the series.