An unprecedented NLCS matchup

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• But let's keep going. Let's include benches and bullpens. If we do that, we find that an incredible 38 of the 50 players on these two rosters had already appeared in at least one postseason series before this October -- and 34 of the 50 had played in a World Series. So, if all 34 of them play in this series, it would be two more than the previous high of 32 with World Series experience, set in the 1972 NLCS between the Pirates and the Big Red Machine. The most in any LCS in the wild-card era was 31, in that 1998 ALCS between the Yankees and Indians.

So these are two teams overflowing with players who are well-acquainted with October baseball and everything that goes with it, from media hordes swarming the clubhouse to wild weather swings to pressurized at-bats at 12:18 a.m.

"And I think that's huge," the Cardinals' Matt Carpenter said. "There's a big advantage in having been here, and having a game plan, and knowing what to expect, because a postseason game, unless you've experienced it, there's just a different feel to it, compared to a regular-season ballgame. The game's almost played differently. It's hard to describe exactly why that is unless you've experienced it. But when you've got two teams like us, who have done it for years, and it seems like it's year after year, there are a lot of advantages to that."

The Cardinals are appearing in their fourth consecutive LCS. Since the expansion of the postseason to three rounds in 1995, only two other teams have pulled off that feat -- the 1995-99 Braves and the 1998-2001 Yankees.

So, which is the only team to beat the Cardinals in an NLCS in this stretch? Who else? The Giants, in 2012.

And for the Giants, that was part of an amazing run in which they've won seven consecutive postseason series, plus a wild-card game, all under Bruce Bochy, just since 2010.

You might be amazed to know that only one other manager in the history of baseball has won that many postseason series in a row. That would be Joe Torre, who won 11 straight with those 1998-2001 Yankees.

But Torre got to manage teams with the most talent and, in a related development, the most money. Does anybody want to argue that Bochy has had either? Didn't think so.

Then again, Mike Matheny is in his third year as manager of the Cardinals, and he already has won a postseason series in all three of those seasons. So that's another big factor in this series. It isn't just the players who have found a comfort level in games like this. It's also the managers.

"Who knows, man?" Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt said of Bochy. "He might have butterflies. He might be pacing. He might have massive headaches like some of us have. But he seems to be pretty calm in these situations. And I think that that helps. When you have a calm manager in these situations, it calms all of us down."

"We know he has a certain rhyme and reason for putting in a certain lefty over another lefty, or a certain righty in over another righty, and I think we trust him," Affeldt said. "And I think that's the one thing that every one of us here knows. We're prepared to go in at any time, but we also kind of have an idea. And when Bochy puts us in, we have full confidence that this is the matchup he thinks we should be in.

"We might not come through. We might not execute a pitch. But he believes that this is the best matchup for you and for his team, and this is why you're facing him. And that's where we all have come to definitely respect him and how he runs these games, especially in the playoffs."

There is more to finding those matchups than just guesswork, though. This series will be mano a mano between two of the best-prepared teams in baseball. And that preparation ethic has separated them from one great team after another this time of year.

Seriously, do you really think every offense the Giants have faced over the past few Octobers just happened to go into "a slump" that week? Do you really think the Cardinals have beaten Clayton Kershaw four times in the past two postseasons because he suddenly forgot how to be an ace? Really? In fact, this is where that culture of preparation and hunger for information shows up more than ever.

"That's the No. 1 reason for our success, I think," Carpenter said. "We've got a lot of guys who take pride in being prepared. I know I'm a big believer that, if you go into a battle and you've left no stone unturned, you've given yourself the best chance to win. And that's a mindset that I think this whole room takes. ? I learned it from the veterans, guys like Chris Carpenter, Lance Berkman, Yadi [Molina]. Watching them prepare for battle and watching them prepare for games like this, you realize that's what it takes. And that's just something that's been instilled in here."

But it has been instilled just as heavily in the clubhouse across the field. So what we have here is a series that might not resemble any we've seen in many an October. It's a series between two teams that can't out-prepare each other, that have no experience edge over each other, that have no greater comfort level in these games than each other. So it's almost impossible to handicap, even for the men about to play in it.

"I think you're going to see a great series," Cardinals left fielder  Matt Holliday said. "It's two similar teams, with two similar experiences. And whoever gets the big hit or makes the big pitch, it will come down to those moments. There will be three or four moments that will decide this series."

And if they're anything like the moments that have led both teams to this point, we can't wait. How about you?