S.F. Giants vs. K.C. Royals: Keys for Each Team to Win the World Series

After four long days of waiting, the World Series finally is here. The Kansas City Royals host the San Francisco Giants in Game 1 at 8 p.m. ET.

The Fall Classic is shaping up to be a showdown between two clubs few expected to make it this far, especially since both entered October not as division winners but as wild-card teams.

The Giants, of course, have been here before, having won it all each of the past two even years (2010, 2012), while the Royals haven't reached this stage—or even been to the postseason at all—since 1985.

With two of the more fundamentally sound teams set to go head-to-head, this World Series should be extremely competitive and tightly contested. That's why there's a good chance a game—or even the whole series—could be decided by very specific factors.

Like these.

Giants' Key: Limit the Royals' Running Game

Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

Unless you haven't been paying attention since, like, April, you're aware that the Royals like to run, having led the majors with 153 swipes in the regular season. Oh, and they've notched 13 more in the playoffs, too.

That's going to be a factor in the World Series, so while the Giants won't be able to shut down the Royals' running game, they must do what they can to contain it. That's easier said than done, even considering that Buster Posey and company caught nearly 31 percent of would-be base stealers (10th best) during the year, per MLB.com.

San Francisco also has to avoid compounding matters by not letting a steal—or the threat of a steal—get to the pitcher, catcher and fielders when Kansas City puts men on base.

"It's our job as a staff to control that running game, and I think we can do that," Giants right-hander Tim Hudson said, via Chris Haft of MLB.com. "They're probably going to try to force us to make mistakes in that area. We just have to keep our composure."

Royals' Key: Continue to Force the Issue

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

Unless you skipped over the first slide, you know even more about Kansas City's proclivity for pilfering. But the Royals disrupt in more ways than that.

They bunt, beat out infield singles and go first to third—all things that force the opposition to be on their toes and make plays. And frankly, while too much bunting is just giving away outs, the Royals and manager Ned Yost have made it work more often than not in some way or another, thanks in large part to their speed.

"Watching them for the last month or so," Posey said, per Haft, "they're obviously very aggressive and have a ton of speed, and I would expect them to try and use that."

The Royals will, especially late in games that are close, at which point Yost will call for sacrifice bunts to move runners and utilize pinch-running specialists Jarrod Dyson and Terrance Gore to put the pressure on the Giants.

Giants' Key: Keep Taking Advantage of Opportunities

As much as curses, auras and magic don't actually exist on a baseball field, it's pretty hard to ignore at this point that the Giants have some sort of even-year mojo going on after winning it all in 2010 and 2012 and now getting back to the Fall Classic in 2014.

What that means, in reality, is that San Francisco is one of the best teams in October when it comes to creating—and cashing in on—opportunities, especially unexpected ones.

Like when St. Louis Cardinals reliever Randy Choate's throwing error on a sac bunt (highlight above) allowed the Giants to score the game-winning run of National League Championship Series Game 3.

Or when Mike Morse pinch hit in the bottom of the eighth of Game 5 and smacked the game-tying home run, setting the stage for journeyman Travis Ishikawa, of all people, to hit the series-clinching, walk-off, three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth.

Whatever and whenever other opportunities present themselves, the Giants need to continue to take advantage with all of their October experience and #EvenYearMagic.

Royals' Key: Don't Allow for Any Defensive Drop-off

A big part of the Giants' success this month is the fact that they have put the ball in play more than any other club.

San Francisco's 14.2 strikeout rate is easily the lowest of all playoff teams and would rank No. 1 in the regular season by a sizable margin, too. It goes to show how good the Giants are at making contact when they can do that against pitching-rich clubs like the Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals in the postseason.

That means the Royals are going to get plenty of chances, particularly when their starting pitchers—whose 17.3 percent strikeout rate was the fifth-lowest in baseball—are on the mound. Their best-in-baseball defense needs to be just that.

Giants' Key: Go Ahead Early

Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Given that their .638 OPS is the worst among any team that has played at least two series, and they had only two homers heading into the clinching NLCS Game 5—when the unlikely trio of Joe Panik, Morse and Ishikawa hit three—the Giants offense needs to pick it up overall.

That applies even more so in the early innings, as San Francisco will want to score in the first half of games to avoid having to face the Royals' flame-throwing end-game trifecta while trailing.

As Matthew Leach of MLB.com writes:

"

The first thing that jumps out about the Royals is that bullpen—and more specifically, those last three pitchers. All year, it's gone Kelvin Herrera to Wade Davis to Greg Holland, and now once in a while Herrera comes in before the seventh. If you don't lead the Royals through six, you're almost certainly not going to beat them.

"

We've already been over some of the Giants' good fortune late in playoff games, but K.C.'s dominant relievers have a way of making the opposition's luck run out.

Royals' Key: Prove They Can Bounce Back Quickly

It's no secret that the Royals have yet to lose in these playoffs, and while a perfect postseason is actually a possibility still, it's likely K.C. (8-0 so far) will eventually lose a game.

By not experiencing a defeat in October—heck, the last loss was Sept. 27, nearly a month ago!—there's no telling how and how quickly this team will be able to bounce back, especially now that this is baseball's biggest stage.

And let's not forget: It's been a while since Kansas City has been here.

The Royals need to show they can avoid dropping into any sort of post-loss funk. In a best-of-seven series, even one in which they hold home-field advantage, there's simply no time for that to happen.

Statistics are accurate through Oct. 20 and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs, unless otherwise noted.

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