SAN FRANCISCO _ The Giants only hope to continue their streak of winning every even-year World Series title this decade hinges on winning against the Cubs on Monday.
And Tuesday. And Thursday.
Giants' starter Madison Bumgarner is well aware of that. At the same time, he's not fixated on anything but Game 3 of the National League Division Series. He says his teammates share those feelings.
"There hasn't been a whole lot of talk, because everybody knows what kind of spot we're in," Bumgarner said before Sunday's workout at AT&T Park. He's Monday's starter, facing Chicago's Jake Arrieta. "The only thing we can do is come in and win tomorrow. That's it. Win or go home.
"So the only thing we can do is focus on winning tomorrow. If we do that, they we get to do it again, and so on."
The Giants have done this before. They were down 0-2 to the Cincinnati Reds in 2012 and won three straight en route to the World Series title. This roster still has much of the core from that team but it's blended with a new generation, some of whom are going through this for the first time.
He likes the Giants' resilience.
"It's pretty impressive," he said. "Especially with the young guys we have, they kind of followed suite pretty easily. And it's just a real good vibe that everyone puts off here.
"And the mentality that we have, there's definitely no panic. I wouldn't say that at all, but we got a lot of guys that are ready to show up and play ball."
The Giants do have a little history on their side. San Francisco teams have won the last nine elimination games. That's a lot of winning and not going home.
