Giants prove World Series worthy once again

There will be a team from California in the 2014 World Series and no it won’t be the Dodgers or Angels; it will be the San Francisco Giants. Again. It hurts me to say, but the Giants are the most complete team in the league, and are better than their Southern California counterparts. Since winning two World Series titles in the last four seasons, the Giants have quietly been one of the better teams in baseball but haven’t got the recognition they deserved because of all the hype of their So-Cal rivals. I’ve got to give credit where credit is due.

Madison Bumgarner has lead the Giants back to the fall classic in 2014. By SD Dirk on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons

They handily beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Wild Card game in Pittsburgh, then the Washington Nationals who had the best record in the National League. The Giants dispatched them in four games.

The pipe dream would have been to finally see a Dodgers-Giants NLCS, but the Dodgers couldn’t live up to their part of the deal and handed the Cardinals a series win thus setting up another Cardinals-Giants NLCS showdown.

A combination of great pitching from the Giants and injuries and mistakes for the Cardinals gave San Francisco the series win and another World Series appearance.

The San Francisco Giants will meet the red-hot — and surprising — Kansas City Royals in the World Series starting October 21^st in Kansas City. Recent history favors the Giants to win the series, but the way the Royals are playing anything is possible. My advice to the Royals would be to make sure to take the first two games in Kansas City, otherwise the Giants might get to party in San Francisco, celebrating a third consecutive even-year World Series title.