By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon (left) and San Francisco Giant pitcher Matt Moore (right) converse prior to game one of the NLDS at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on Friday night

The Giants have had a stretch that saw them win three World Series titles in five years. The Chicago Cubs have waited 108 years to claim that elusive championship.

That pretty much sums it up right there, and because of that, the pressure is expected to fall much more on the Cubs – who clinched the National League’s best record and home-field advantage for the postseason – than the Giants at this point.

This sets up a best-of-five National League Division Series that starts Friday night inside of Wrigley Field

One more advantage that the Giants seem to have on their side is rhythm. While the Cubs wrapped up their spot in the playoffs earlier on and then focused on keeping their guys healthy, the Giants had to battle during the final week of the regular season in order to make it to this point, with each game having playoff implications.

Then came Wednesday night, which saw the Giants having traveled across the country to face the Mets in the NL’s wild-card, winner-take-all game. Madison Bumgarner stifled the Mets to the tune of a complete-game shutout to add to his ever-growing status as possibly the greatest postseason pitcher the game has ever seen.

Johnny Cueto (18-5, 2.79 ERA), as expected, will take the hill for the Giants and will go up against Jon Lester (19-5, 2.44 ERA), who, unlike many of his Cubs teammates, has World Series championship experience from his years in Boston.

Lester also has some pretty good recent history against the Giants. He shut down the Giants on Sept. 2 at Wrigley by limiting them to a run on only three hits, walking two and striking out four.

Cueto, meanwhile, had an outstanding performance in his most recent start against Chicago. Two days after Lester’s gem, Cueto gave up only a run on five hits to the Cubs over seven innings. However, he was saddled with a no-decision when his bullpen, which was quite known to do over the course of the second half of the season, gave up the lead.