Cardinals vs. Giants, 2012 NLCS: San Francisco has home field advantage

The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants will face one another in the National League Championship Series that will begin on Sunday, Oct. 14 at 8:15 p.m. ET at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

It's been an incredible journey to the NLCS for both teams -- each beat the odds to overcome substantial deficits to make their way to the championship series. The St. Louis Cardinals deserve special mention after overcoming a 6-0 deficit to shock the Washington Nationals 7-5 on Friday night during the deciding Game 5 of the NLDS. Their road through the postseason has been nothing short of magical, as they faced the Atlanta Braves in the play-in Wild Card game and advanced following a controversial play.

San Francisco was down 0-2 in their series vs. the Cincinnati Reds and managed to string together three convincing wins -- 2-1, 8-3 and 6-4 in order to send the Reds packing. They are the first team in MLB history to come from behind in a five-game series and win.

The Giants are guaranteed home field advantage for the remainder of the postseason, and they'll send left handerMadison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong to the mound in Games 1 and 2 to ensure that they make that happen.

St. Louis is still enjoying the win against the Nationals, but when it comes time to play ball again, they will ride the momentum of a four-run ninth inning on Friday night that saw the team's offense produce nine runs. Peter Kozma was the hero after belting two-run single that put the Cardinals up for good in the top of the ninth. But Matt Holliday andCarlos Beltran will be the big bats the team will need in order to produce against the Giants' strong pitching.