SAN FRANCISCO — The Cubs have done well to give themselves a 2-0 cushion in this National League Division Series.
Their goal is not to need it.
They know all about the Giants’ title-winning pedigree, their ability to rally from behind in a best-of-five series. With defending NL Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta taking the ball for Chicago in Game 3, the Cubs also know it’s in their best interests to wrap up this series Monday night at AT&T Park so as not give the Giants — or their fan base — any hope of a comeback.
To do that, Chicago first needs to crack the seemingly impenetrable armor of Giants left-hander Madison Bumgarner, who added to his postseason legend with Wednesday’s shutout of the Mets in the NL Wild Card game.
“It’s a five-game series, every game is more important,” Cubs left fielder Ben Zobrist said. “We’d love to beat MadBum too, as good as he’s been in the postseason the last five or six years. It’d be something. We’re all looking forward to that challenge tomorrow.”
Arrieta is charged with setting the tone Monday as the Cubs, 103-58 in the regular season, shoot for their first World Series crown since 1908.
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Talk about setting the bar high. Arrieta went 18-8 with a 3.10 ERA this season, but those numbers seemed like a relative letdown after the brilliance of his 2015 campaign, when he went 22-6 with a 1.77 ERA to claim his first Cy Young.
Figure the 30-year-old Arrieta won’t be lacking motivation Monday night after last year’s postseason showing left something to be desired. He shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates in a marvelous Wild Card outing but surrendered a combined eight earned runs in a Division Series win against the Cardinals and an NL Championship Series loss to the Mets.
Arrieta is looking forward to his return to the postseason stage Monday, saying these are the moments he daydreamed about while playing wiffle ball as a youngster in Plano, Texas. He’s 3-1 with a 2.08 ERA in four career starts at AT&T Park, and he’s been excellent against the Giants overall in his career, going 4-2 with a 1.82 ERA in six starts.
“I enjoy AT&T Park very much,” Arrieta said. “It’s a great city. Obviously the crowd is going to be really, really amped up and extremely loud. That’s expected here. With what this team’s done, there’s a lot of excitement. There’s going to be a lot of adrenaline, and the crowd’s gonna provide a lot of it and you look forward to moments like that.”
With Bumgarner and Arrieta on the hill, Cubs manager Joe Maddon says that’s likely to impact his strategy. Anticipating a low-scoring contest, he might play his infield in a little earlier in the game than normal. The ever-quotable Maddon was asked to try to put Bumgarner’s career-long postseason dominance into perspective.
[PAVLOVIC: Bumgarner: 'Everybody knows what kind of spot we’re in']
“I was a Cardinal fan growing up,” he said. “Seeing Bob Gibson do what he did in the 60’s and then Mr. Koufax, what he did. You have to kind of draw the parallels … It’s just like what Gibson did, it’s like what Koufax did. And maybe with Whitey Ford and the Yankees prior to that. So I hope the kids that are really watching right now understand how good this guy is, and how it parallels throughout baseball history.”
The Cubs received a dominant start from Jon Lester in a 1-0 Game 1 victory at Wrigley Field. Their bullpen came up huge as they bagged a 5-2 win in Game 2. But Maddon says he doesn’t see his team losing its edge based on holding a 2-0 advantage as the series shifts west.
“We would be foolish to be overconfident about this situation,” he said. “They’re really good. They have done this before. That is a group that is just dripping with tested veterans and a manager that’s outstanding. So you never take the Giants for granted. Never.”
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Maddon said he didn’t have any update on starter Kyle Hendricks after the right-hander took a liner off his right forearm in Game 2.
“He’s just sore,” the manager said. “But I have not got anything highly negative from anybody (about his condition).”
