KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Only four times in history has a winner-take-all game in the World Series gone to extra innings, and only two since World War II. Of the 36 times that it’s come down to one game, there have been 13 times that one run has been the difference. Who cares?
This is the time for hyperbolic dreaming, for thoughts of a contest between the Giants and Royals that includes a snow delay, a Christmas truce and forced rescheduling of pitchers and catchers reporting next spring. Kansas City’s 10-0 romp in Game 6 sends the 2014 World Series, a nail-biting series without a signature game, into Wednesday night (8:07 p.m. ET, Fox) searching for a way to go to infinity and beyond.
In the role of Buzz Lightyear is Royals ace James Shields, the loser of Games 1 and 5, and the owner of a 5.46 career postseason ERA belying his appellation as Big Game James. Entering what almost certainly is his last contest as a home player in Kansas City before he hits free agency, Shields is ready for anything.
“I’m there for whatever Skip needs,” Shields said. “I’m ready to go.”
So, if Ned Yost asks Shields to pitch until April, if he is a man of his word, he will do it. That dwarfs the bounded imagination of possible World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner, who pitched a four-hit shutout on Sunday.
“Maybe 200?” Bumgarner said when asked how many pitches he might be able to throw in a hypothetical relief appearance. “As long as you’re getting outs. I don’t know, I feel like pitch counts are overrated, so, whatever’s working and getting outs.”
Bumgarner’s performance in this year’s playoffs — in six starts, he has pitched 47 2/3 innings, struck out 41 batters, held opponents to a .156/.194/.228 line, and six earned runs — has led to a lot of calls from western precincts for the Giants to start their star left-hander on short rest. Bruce Bochy, however, is sticking with the plan of starting 39-year-old right-hander Tim Hudson.
“There’s a lot of managers out there, and I understand that, but (Bumgarner) just pitched,” Bochy said. “He’s going to be on two days rest. He just threw a complete game. Our confidence is in Huddy. You know, this guy is human. I mean, you can’t push him that much. He’ll be available if we need him, but to start him, I think that’s asking a lot. I have a good pitcher going for us, who has done a great job for us. That’s the reason. So, when they tweet you, just tell them that.”
Hudson, who gave up three runs in 5 2/3 innings of Game 3, deserves his start in Game 7. Bumgarner said as much himself. The reason that Bochy is right to stay with Hudson, though, is not the reason he gave. It’s that in a World Series of wild card vs. wild card, Bumgarner coming out of the bullpen is the ultimate wild card. He can be the break-glass-in-case-of-emergency man in the early innings if Hudson falters, or, baseball gods permitting, he can throw his 200 pitches when things head toward the land of the surreal.
The Giants already played an 18-inning game in this year’s playoffs, beating the Nationals 2-1 in Game 2 of the NLDS. What if that was just a warmup? Every hurler who might be called on for Game 7 is ready for the possibility of throwing the extra mile’s worth of pitches.
“I just go out there and pitch until Bochy says it’s enough,” said Jeremy Affeldt, the Giants’ lefty reliever who used to start for Kansas City a decade ago. “If it’s one hitter, it’s one hitter. If it’s three innings, it’s three innings. I just go out there and give him everything I’ve got until he says ‘I’m going to change pitchers.’ I’m prepared for any of it. … It’s Game 7. I don’t think we’re going to be feeling a whole lot. Just go out there.”
Greg Holland, the Royals’ closer, has the most defined role of any pitcher for either team. All 10 of his postseason outings have been exactly one inning. The last time he pitched anything other than exactly one inning was Aug. 19, when he got a one-out save at Coors Field. The last time Holland got more than three outs was Sept. 13, 2012, when he entered in the eighth inning and blew a save against the Twins, who went on to beat the Royals in extra innings. Holland has not pitched since Game 3 of the World Series. He is ready for whatever load he is asked to carry.
“I don’t make those decisions,” Holland said. “But I’ll be ready to pitch, yup.”
Holland is part of the Royals’ preferred formula for Game 7 — Jeremy Guthrie for six solid innings, then Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and the closer (all of whom got a nice day off in Game 6, as did the Giants' best relievers) to wrap up a championship — but for the very last game of the year, everyone has to be prepared for the possibility of the dream scenario of the long night’s journey into day into night into forever. It’s the game where Shields gets his ERA down to Bumgarner territory, and where Bumgarner throws his 200 pitches, maybe more.
It’s the game where Hunter Strickland still doesn’t get to pitch, not after giving up a sixth home run in 8 1/3 postseason innings on Tuesday. But if Bumgarner somehow does tire, long after Hudson and Guthrie have exhausted themselves, the Giants also have the magic man of extra innings, Yusmeiro Petit, best known for his six scoreless frames in that 18-inning showdown earlier this month.
Petit pitched only two-thirds of an inning in Game 6, showing that he was human by allowing all three of his inherited runners to score, plus two of his own.
“I’m ready for tomorrow, we saved me for tomorrow,” Petit said. “I’m going to help set up tomorrow and be ready tomorrow. My arm feels better today, and tomorrow, it’s fine.”
The next day, it should be even better, then. The longer that Shields and Holland and Bumgarner and Petit keep pitching, the shorter that winter will be. That’s the dream of Game 7. The record is 12 innings, set by the Giants and Senators in 1924. Walter Johnson pitched four scoreless innings of relief to win that one, after having pitched a complete game two days earlier. That 4-3 game still only took three hours. No such hurry this time. Winter is coming, but only if the Giants and Royals let it. The pitchers are ready to do their part to fight it.