X-Factors Who'll Decide the Winner of Giants-Royals World Series Game 7

It all comes down to this. One game—one pulse-pounding, nerve-wracking game—to decide an entire season of peaks and valleys, triumphs and defeats. As ESPN's Buster Olney noted, there have been 2,461 major league games played this season, counting October.

Now, we get one more with everything on the line.

If the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals have shown us anything in this back-and-forth Fall Classic, it's that they share a lot of DNA. Both clubs are scrappy and resilient, lucky enough to get the bounces and talented enough to capitalize. 

We've seen shutdown starting pitching and stellar bullpen work, just as we've witnessed mound meltdowns. We've gnawed our nails through tight one-run affairs and slogged through blowouts both ways. There has been highlight-reel defense, daring baserunning and clutch two-out hits. Mostly, it's been entertaining, exemplary baseball.

This is also a matchup no one saw coming, two wild-card teams that squeaked into the postseason and went nuts. So it stands to reason the final contest will feature a few more twists, with X-factors that unexpectedly influence the outcome.

Who, or what, will they be? We won't know for sure until the first pitch Wednesday at 8:07 p.m. ET. That's the fun of it. Until then—why not?—let's speculate about the players and forces that will shape Game 2,462.

Terrance Gore

Ed Zurga/Associated Press

Terrance Gore made the Royals World Series roster despite starting the season at Single-A and taking only one big league at-bat in the regular season. He's here for his legs, which he used to swipe 47 bases in 54 attempts in the minor leagues. He stole three more through the first three rounds of the playoffs, coming in exclusively as a pinch runner.

"He brings an element with him—even sitting on the bench—I think opposing managers look at him as a bit of a game-changer," Kansas City skipper Ned Yost told USA Today's Ted Berg.

The 23-year-old speedster has hardly jogged out of the dugout in the Fall Classic, though he did score a run in Game 2, which the Royals won 7-2.

There's no way Yost will let Gore handle a bat in Game 7, except under extreme circumstances, but if the score is close, there's a good chance he could ask No. 0 to use those game-changing legs.

They're what got Gore here, after all, and they might just carry KC across the finish line.

Michael Morse

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

The moment he launched a pinch-hit home run to tie Game 5 of the National League Championship Series—helping San Francisco punch its World Series ticket—Michael Morse ceased to be a secret weapon.

A dangerous power hitter who clubbed 16 home runs for the Giants in the regular season, Morse missed significant time down the stretch with an oblique injury and sat out the first two rounds of the postseason. Now, he's a key part of Giants manager Bruce Bochy's arsenal. And thanks to the use of the designated hitter in the AL park, he's back in the starting lineup.

Morse was 0-for-4 in Kansas City's 10-0 Game 6 rout, but he's had some big knocks in this World Series, including a pinch-hit RBI double off Royals right-hander Jeremy Guthrie in Game 3.

Guthrie, as it happens, will be the Game 7 starter. And Morse, as it happens, owns a .375 lifetime average against Guthrie, per ESPN.com. 

The usual small-sample caveats apply. Then again, this is Game 7 of the World Series, the mother of all small samples. 

Kauffman Stadium Crowd

Associated Press

In the annals of long-suffering franchises, there's the Chicago Cubs and everyone else. Near the head of the "everyone else" pack stand the Royals, who haven't made the playoffs, let alone won anything, since 1985.

That's 29 long, excruciating years. So you can bet the crowd at Kauffman Stadium will redefine "raucous" Wednesday night.

"Anybody who’s been at the stadium during these playoff games, they’ve seen the atmosphere," first baseman Eric Hosmer told The Kansas City Star after the Royals clinched the AL pennant. "We appreciate the love."

The Giants will be ready. They've been here before, twice recently, clinching both the 2010 and 2012 World Series on the road. And they've gone 5-3 away from AT&T Park this postseason, including a win in front of the Pittsburgh Pirates faithful—another long-suffering bunch—in the National League Wild Card Game.

Still, home-field advantage is home-field advantage.

The guy with the moose antlers for third baseman Mike Moustakas; the weird lion mascot with the fused-on crown; the sea of waving white towels. They may seem trivial, mere distractions for the cameras, but in a winner-take-all contest, those little advantages add up.

These KC fans can't end their suffering through sheer force of will—but they can sure try.

Madison Bumgarner

Jamie Squire/Associated Press

Madison Bumgarner has done enough, solidifying his status as an all-time October great with a pair of complete-game shutouts—in the NL Wild Card Game and Game 5 of the World Series—and flat-out dominating at every turn.

His career postseason ERA is now a stingy 2.27, while his career World Series ERA is an unreal 0.29, the lowest in history among pitchers who've logged at least 30 innings.

So it seems ridiculous for the Giants to expect more out of their 25-year-old left-hander. And yet he insists he's got more to give.

"I've already talked to Madison and he says, 'Listen, if you need me, in fact, I'm good to go. I'm ready to go,'" Bochy said before Game 6, per Dave Skretta of The Associated Press (via ABC News). 

San Francisco is certainly hoping Game 7 starter Tim Hudson can go deep, and even after Tuesday's blowout, key members of the Giants pen, including closer Santiago Casilla and setup men Jeremy Affeldt and Sergio Romo, are well-rested.

But this is an all-hands-on-deck affair, a game where no bullet will go unspent. And given how Bumgarner has dominated these Royals—along with everyone else—it'd be no surprise to see him stride out of the pen...and add one more chapter to his October legend.

Baseball History

John Swart/Associated Press

In 2002, the Giants won Game 5 of the World Series against the then-Anaheim Angels and sent the series back to Southern California up 3-2. The Halos proceeded to win the next two at home and hoist the trophy.

In 1985, the Royals won Game 5 of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals and sent the series back to Kansas City trailing 3-2. The Royals proceeded to win the next two at home and hoist the trophy.

So we're sensing a pattern. Then there's this, from Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com:

"

Although teams playing at home down 3-2 in a best-of-seven World Series (2-3-2 formats only) are just 13-16 all-time, they've won it all in eight of the last 10 instances. ... And how about this? Going back to 1982, when the home team wins Game 6 to tie a League Championship Series or World Series, that team is 14-1 in Game 7.

"

That's the history, which would now seem to be sitting squarely in the Kansas City dugout. The counterargument: These Giants have gone on two recent improbable runs and won seven consecutive elimination games dating back to 2012. 

Where Kansas City is raw and exuberant, San Francisco is seasoned and battle-tested. Bottom line: Neither club is going down without a fight.

And the two teams have one gigantic bout left.

All statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.