On Saturday night, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester sat in his clubhouse chair, still partially in uniform and nursing a Miller Lite, entertaining reporters with jokes about Travis Wood.

He was reveling in the moment after the Cubs’ 5-2 win over San Francisco. With all the pressure on the Cubs entering the series, it was definitely a relief to have a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five National League Division Series before taking a late-night flight to the Bay Area.

“It is,” Lester said. “Just based on we’re facing [Madison] Bumgarner, you know? One-one facing Bumgarner, that’s not a real good feeling.”

Bumgarner has become the October Bogeyman and the Cubs openly admitted as much after the game. Not a lot of false bravado in that room.

If the series were tied at 1-1, I don’t know if the Cubs would’ve been so deferential toward the Giants ace. But they have a two-game lead and John Lackey going in Game 4, so there’s reason to be realistic about facing the best postseason pitcher going on Monday night.

Bumgarner vs. Jake Arrieta is a marquee matchup of very confident, successful pitchers. I asked Lester if AT&T Park is big enough to handle that much “machismo” on the mound.

“Ooh, that’s a lot of machismo,” Lester said. “That’ s lot of ‘Dig me’ right there.”

In a positive way, of course.

“It’s good though,” Lester said. “That’s a good matchup. I love it. That’s what baseball needs. You need matchups like this.”

(That’s when his lockermate John Lackey took a break from brushing his cowboy hat and said, “You need to be quiet.” Lester responded, “I don’t like being quiet, John.”)

“You need games like this,” Lester continued. “That’s what draws people, that’s what fills stadiums, you know?”

Jake Arrieta isn’t a fan of sleeves. (Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports)

I mentioned it brings to mind watching playoff baseball games when I was a kid. I was thinking about the Atlanta Braves of the early 1990s, the Blue Jays, the Twins. Star power and a sense of aura.

(This got Lester going on a tangent about how there aren’t many baseball superstars anymore, but that’s a column for another time.)

For Arrieta, this matchup is something like a childhood fantasy come true.

“Well, yeah, you think about it a lot,” he said Sunday in San Francisco. “As a kid, you put yourself in those positions. Bases loaded, two outs, you’re at the plate. That’s kind of the way I envision it as a kid playing wiffle ball or whatever the case was. Just kind of day dreaming about situations like this in Little League and now a moment like that is here for myself and for us as a team once again.

“So, I’ve had these moments in the past, and it’s just something you really want to relish and try and embrace and enjoy as much as you can because you play the long season, regular season to get to this moment, to have these types of opportunities, and you prepare and you move forward accordingly and try and take care of business. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Taking care of business against Bumgarner is no easy task, so if the Cubs were to beat him, it would make for a hell of a clinch party. Nearly everyone at Wrigley Field outside of the clubhouse was just writing Game 3 off as a loss because of the Giants pitcher.

San Francisco won Bumgarner’s last five postseason starts and he got a save in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series. He’s given up four earned runs over 45 2/3 innings in that span. He’s coming off a complete game shutout of the New York Mets in the wild card game.

“Hopefully we get him to make some mistakes,” Cubs budding star Javy Baez said Saturday.

“There’s no secret,” Cubs MVP candidate Kris Bryant said. “He’s a pretty good postseason pitcher. We’re going to have to work really hard, work the counts and to get him out of there early.”

You can bet the Giants will be working the same strategy against Arrieta, working long counts to see if his wildness returns.

Arrieta’s spotty postseason performance last season (He gave up eight runs in 10 2/3 innings in the NLDS and NLCS, after a complete game shutout of Pittsburgh in the wild card game without his best stuff.) has colored people’s perceptions of him this season as he’s battled control problems — problems being a relative term. There’s a bit of a wait-and-see attitude with him going into his first postseason start of 2016, especially after putting up a 4.44 ERA in his final 16 starts.

After such a heavy load in his Cy Young season, Arrieta’s unflappable, unbeatable aura was chipped away last October.

So it’s natural to wonder; Will that happen again? Will it be “Dig me” or “Dig the Cubs a hole?” Even the Cubs have no idea how he’ll pitch.

He had a very good season in 2016. But he set a higher standard last year. You don’t need to read Brooks Baseball to know Arrieta was off a little this year. He had a 9.6 walk percentage in 2016, compared to 5.5 percent last year. His strikeout percentage was down to 23.9 percent, from 27.1 percent. He still finished with a 3.10 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP this season and opponents hit .194 off him, compared to .184 last year.

Cubs starting pitcher Jake Arrieta can look pretty intimidating on the mound. Can he back up his confidence Monday night. (Jake Roth/USA TODAY Sports)

But he was more human in 2016. There was no way he could live up to his Bob Gibson second half in 2015, so why should we grade him on a curve?

Smarter people can fine-tune their critiques of his season. I know Arrieta has used his cutter a little less this season after dominating with it last year. The reason is he hasn’t had the same feel for it and it’s been a struggle to get it back. He’s also admitted he needs to use his changeup more. Just like Lester needs David Ross behind the plate to keep him honest, Arrieta needs Miguel Montero to frame his low strikes and keep him on track.

Even after subpar outings, Arrieta has exuded confidence. After pitching in an 8-4 loss in Pittsburgh at the end of September, he told reporters, “Whoever I face first round … they’re going to be in trouble.”

So he will prepare for his start thinking, or maybe knowing, he’s going to be the best pitcher in the park.

“I don’t think Jake is cowered by any situation,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said Sunday in San Francisco. “We have a lot of confidence in him. I think he projected last year exactly what he’s all about. He’s done it this year, too.”

Arrieta’s aura is a factor in his success. With his long beard, cold stare and super-hero physique, he wants to intimidate on the mound. I think he feeds off it. Off the mound, he’s a smart thoughtful guy. But try to find him wearing sleeves when he’s at the ballpark and not in uniform.

Arrieta persevered as an underdog when he came to Chicago from Baltimore, and now, in a way, he’s going back to his roots facing Bumgarner.

“I think he’s an alpha male,” Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer told me. “I thought it was awesome last year with that little Twitter thing with Pittsburgh. Not because you love that stuff but it just shows you that he’s not going to back down from the moment. He wanted the moment and ultimately, you want guys that want the big stage. I thought that was the beauty of Curt Schilling in Boston. There’s nothing better than shutting up 55,000 people from New York. You want a guy who wants to be out there trying to quiet a crowd. Jake kind of owned that [in the wild card game]. That’s an ace attitude. That’s a No. 1 starter attitude.”

But Arrieta is no longer the No. 1 starter. That’s Lester. Kyle Hendricks is the out-of-nowhere Cy Young candidate. Arrieta is trying to recapture his reputation as the baddest pitcher on the planet. So whom better to challenge than Bumgarner?

Lester is right, Arrieta and Bumgarner in a possible elimination game is exactly what baseball needs. And the Cubs need Arrieta to pitch like it’s Sept. 2015 again, when he’s trying to prove to everyone he’s the best pitcher in the game.