@Giants 5, Royals 0, Giants go up 3-2 — Madison Bumgarner’s eight strikeouts are fairly modest by today’s standards for an utterly dominant game. But he got them when they counted most:

• 1st inning, after a two-out single, Hosmer went down swinging.
• 2nd inning, a leadoff single, then Moustakas, Infante and Dyson down hacking, each at a different pitch.
• No one else reached until the 5th, when Infante doubled with one out — and Dyson and Shields took the breeze.

KC’s first six at-bats with a man on base ended in a U-turn. The only inning in which they made contact with a man aboard was the 7th, when Hosmer led off with a single. Salvador Perez lined to the track in left, but defensive replacement Juan Perez got there. Moustakas — who, like Dyson, really has no business batting against a good lefty in a key spot — hit a routine fly to center on an 0-2 count, and Infante worked it full before grounding to Panda. No Royal came close to a hit in the 8th or the let-down 9th.

And by working ahead, Bumgarner often induced weak contact, if not swings-and-misses. He threw 25 of 31 first-pitch strikes, with one 2-0 count, one 3-1, no 3-0.

(All stats herein come from the indispensable Baseball-Reference.com, except for pitch sequences.)

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Rest in peace, Oscar Taveras. Our thoughts go with his family, friends and teammates.

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Best Game Scores for a pivotal Game 5 (i.e., Series was tied):

• 94, Don Larsen, 1956 — Twenty-seven up, twenty-seven down.
• 88, Sandy Koufax, 1965 — 10-K shutout, four singles, one walk. (And an RBI single himself.)
• 87, Bob Gibson, 1964 — Hoot might have been home and dry with a 4-hit shutout, but a 9th-inning E-6 opened the door for Tom Tresh’s two-out tying bomb. Tim McCarver’s 3-run shot in the 10th put Gibby back on the hill, and he closed the deal. (Came back on two days’ rest for a hard-working Game 7 win.)
• 87, Madison Bumgarner, 2014
• 86, Bobo Newsom, 1940 — In one of the few Series played with no off days, Buck capped his best season with a routine CG win in the opener, and then this 3-hit whitewash on normal three days’ rest. (In Game 7, starting with one day’s rest, Newsom nursed a 1-0 lead into the stretch frame, but the Reds pulled out a 2-1 win.)
• 83, Nelson Briles, 1971 — The O’s were at dynasty’s doorstep after winning the first two at home, but the Bucs battled even. Briles was their swingman, coming from the Cards after an off year, with just 14 starts during the year, and no work in the NLCS. But he was a Series veteran, and came through with a 2-hitter, 2 walks, 2 Ks, and drove in the game’s second run. That’s the last of 14 Series shutouts on 2 hits or less.
• 83, Mort Cooper, 1944 — One of the best wartime pitchers, Cooper from 1942-44 went 65-22, 2.17 (all Cardinal pennants), capping that run with this 2-0 shutout. Seven 7 hits and 2 walks, but 12 Ks, including the last three Browns, all pinch-hitters, to fall one shy of what was the Series whiff record.

Five of the previous six on that list won the Series, but only the ’44 Cards won Game 6.

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What does history portend for Game 6? If I’ve counted right, 34 home teams faced elimination in Game 6.* They went 24-10 in that game, and 13-21 at winning the Series; that is, those who won Game 6 went 13-11 in Game 7. (* I counted 1921’s Game 8 in this group, since it was a best-of-9 Series with the home Yankees behind 4-3 entering Game 8.)

That 24-10 home record in Game 6 is five wins more than predicted by home teams’ overall Series record (352-284), while the 13-11 mark in subsequent Game 7’s is right in line with the overall home mark.

Recent history is even more promising for Kansas City. In the divisional era, home teams facing elimination went 12-4 in Game 6, and 9-7 at winning the Series. The last eight that won Game 6 at home also won Game 7: 2011 Cardinals, ’02 Angels, ’01 Diamondbacks, ’91 and ’87 Twins, ’86 Mets, ’85 Royals and ’82 Cards.

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Two players before Juan Perez had a World Series RBI after entering as a pinch-runner: Hector Lopez in 1961, and Willie Mays in 1973. Both did it in their second at-bat.

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Bumgarner is the 8th pitcher to begin his WS starting career with at least four straight games of 6+ innings and 2 runs or less. How did the others fare in the postseason after their first four Series starts? Only these four saw more postseason action:

• Sandy Koufax: Two shutouts and a loss, totaling 24 IP and 4 runs (1 ER), 0.38 ERA, 2-1 record.
• Jack Morris: One legendary game out of five starts, totaling 33 IP and 19 runs, 5.18 ERA, 1-3 record.
• Christy Mathewson: Seven starts, totaling 65.2 IP, 21 runs (10 ER), 1.37 ERA, 1-5 record.
• Pete Alexander: One start and two relief games, totaling 7.1 IP and 11 runs, 13.50 ERA, 0-1 record, one save.

Totals: 4-10 record, 2.84 ERA (3.81 RA/9), in 16 starts and two relief outings, 130 IP, 55 runs, one save.

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Game 4: @Giants 11, Royals 4 — Bruce Bochy resisted the pressure to start his ace on three days’ rest, then had to pull Ryan Vogelsong in the 3rd after four two-out runs put the Giants behind the eight-ball. But his lineup rose to the challenge with a bingle barrage in the middle stanzas, before Ned Yost was ready to deploy his lights-out relief trio.

Biggest Game 4 margins:

• 9 runs, 1946 Cardinals (12-3) … on the road, evened the Series … won in 7
• 9 runs, 1968 Cardinals (10-1) … on the road, took a 3-1 lead … lost in 7
• 8 runs, 2008 Phillies (10-2) … at home, took a 3-1 lead … won in 5
• 7 runs, 1932 Yankees (13-6) … on the road, finished a sweep
• 7 runs, 1961 Yankees (7-0) … on the road, took a 3-1 lead … won in 5
• 7 runs, 1997 Tribe (10-3) … at home, evened the Series … lost in 7
• 7 runs, 2014 Giants (11-4) … at home, evened the Series
• 6 runs, 1934 Tigers (10-4) … on the road, evened the Series … lost in 7
• 6 runs, 1967 Cardinals (6-0) … at home, took a 3-1 lead … won in 7

Out of three prior teams with a 6+ margin to even the Series, only the ’46 Cards went on to win.

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Eleven runs without a homer matches the Giants’ regular-season high of the last two years. The last such World Series game was the Diamondbacks’ 15-2 romp in Game 6 of 2001 — 22 hits, 6 doubles, and a record 9 runs off reliever Jay Witasick.

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It’s petty to carp about one bad pitch call in a game that wound up so one-sided. But the third strike called on Jason Vargas in the 3rd — the difference between ending the inning with the Giants down 4-1 (daunting, not insurmountable), and forcing in a 5th run as the two-out nightmare rolls on — looked well inside to these eyes. It was a big moment in the game: Ball four would have made two walks in two batters for Jean Machi, who’s been ineffective in five straight outings. Yet Bruce Bochy was desperate not to burn another reliever, since the pitcher’s spot would lead off the home half. Two unspoken traditions converged to bail out Machi: A pitcher at bat rarely wins a close call when both the count and the bases are full. And a batter who anticipated ball four on the previous pitch can expect anything close to go against him. (The anticipation rarely takes this form, however.)

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Another little turning point: After San Francisco tied it in the 5th, Jarrod Dyson led off the 6th with a single, and Nori Aoki hit for the pitcher. Dyson is a master thief: His 120 career steals, compared to 320 times on base (including errors), gives him the 4th-highest rate in modern history, after Vince Coleman and the “designated pinch-runners” Matt Alexander and Larry Lintz (and tied with Miguel Dilone). Pinch-running accounted for about 25 of Dyson’s thefts, but the point is, when has a chance at a meaningful steal, he usually goes, and he usually makes it. His 86% success rate ranks 5th among those with 100 SB and known CS data. And Yusmeiro Petit allowed 15 steals in 19 attempts this year, the 12th-highest rate among those with 100 IP.

But Dyson didn’t run. Aoki took one ball, then rapped into a 3-6-3 double play. The inning fizzled, and the Giants scored three with two out in their half for a 7-4 lead.

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A World Series first: Four different 9th-place hitters reached base for the Giants in Game 4. Hits by RP Petit and PHs Duffy and Arias, and a walk by PH Morse. Those three PHs reaching base from the 9th spot is another first.

This is not usually a winning trait. The seven prior teams with three #9 hitters reaching base went just 2-5. Those with two PHs getting on from the 9th spot were 4-18. Those with hits from any three or more substitutes were 5-10.

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Yusmeiro Petit would be the 4th in a postseason to log at least 12 relief innings without being charged with a run:

• Goose Gossage, 1981 (14.1 IP)
• Mariano Rivera, 1998 and ’99 (13.1 IP, 12.1 IP)
• Ken Dayley, 1985 (12.0 IP)

They all were mainly closers, totaling 20 saves and 3 wins in those four postseasons. Petit has won all three appearances — the first such beginning to a postseason relief career, while joining Jesse Orosco (1986) and Francisco Rodriguez (2002) with three relief wins lasting 3+ innings in one postseason.

• Only K-Rod had more than three relief wins in one year, going 5-1, 1.93, in 11 outings and 18.2 IP.

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Omar Infante is the 24th player to get a WS hit with two outs, bases loaded, game tied. It’s the 26th such hit, with two each for Hank Bauer (1951, ’58) and Shane Victorino (2008, ’13), and none in between either pair.

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Brandon Finnegan was charged with 5 runs in one inning’s work, three of those in the 6th when the Giants first took the lead. He’s the 28th reliever to yield 5+ runs in a WS game, with two such turns by Angels in 2002’s Game 5. (I didn’t know there was a pitcher named Chuck Churn, but it’s no surprise that this ended his big-league career.) Finnegan’s -0.362 Win Probability Added rates 5th-worst on that list, whose bottom belongs to Ed Summers in the 1908 opener.

Try to imagine this sequence in today’s game: Summers, a rookie standout who went 24-12, 1.65, relieved Ed Killian in the 3rd with the bags full and one out, his Tigers trailing the Cubs 2-1. He kept Detroit in the game long enough to be handed a 6-5 lead after eight, chipping in an RBI hit. After getting Johnny Evers to start the 9th, Summers (now in his 7th inning of work) surrendered three straight singles to load the bases, another for the tying and go-ahead runs, and two more for a 10-6 Cubs bulge — six straight hits, scoring five runs, and he still finished the inning. Of course, there were no “relief pitchers” the fans could clamor for; Summers led Detroit in games finished as well as starts, common for an ace in those days.

(A mystery tangent to that game: Killian, Detroit’s “5th starter” by workload and wins, started the 1908 opener. But in the ’07 Series, also against the Cubs, Killian started none of the five games, despite owning the team’s best all-around stats — 25-13 with a 1.78 ERA. Perhaps he was hurt at the time — B-R’s Bullpen says that Hughie Jennings “chose to sit Killian … arguing he was tired” — but he did relieve for 4 innings in Game 3. Games 1 and 5 went to Wild Bill Donovan, who went 25-4, 2.19 that year, and George Mullin started Games 2 and 5, a workhorse .500-on-merit pitcher at that point in his career. Game 3 went to Ed Siever, who was a lefty, like Killian. Imagine Don Mattingly benching Clayton Kershaw in the postsea– … umm … imagine Bob Lemon benching Ron Guidry in ’78.)

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Tom Verducci’s remark that craziness tends to happen in Game 4 sent me to the Play Index. Here’s the average score of World Series decisions, by game number (not including tonight):

1. … 5.2 to 2.1 … 7.3 total runs (110 games)
2. … 5.3 to 2.0 … 7.3 total runs (110)
3. … 5.3 to 2.3 … 7.6 total runs (110)
4. … 5.2 to 2.5 … 7.7 total runs (109)
5. … 5.4 to 2.2 … 7.6 total runs (90)
6. … 6.0 to 2.5 … 8.5 total runs (64)
7. … 5.2 to 2.0 … 7.2 total runs (40)
8. … 4.3 to 1.8 … 6.0 total runs (4)

This doesn’t really address Verducci’s point, since “craziness” needn’t relate to scoring levels. The most runs ever did come in a Game 4 (1993, 15-14), and that was a wild one, indeed. But none of the other eight games with 20+ runs was a Game 4. Out of 104 games with 12+ runs (the top one-sixth in scoring), 17 were Game 4, matching its share of all games. Another 17 of those 12+ games were Game 6, much more than its overall share.

Game 4 does have the smallest average margin, and Game 6 the largest (2.7, 3.5). But Game 6 has the highest rate of one-run margins, except for the rare Game 8:

1. 38 out of 110, 35%
2. 31 out of 110, 28%
3. 38 out of 110, 35%
4. 40 out of 110, 36%
5. 20 out of 90, 22%
6. 26 out of 64, 41%
7. 13 out of 40, 33%
8. 2 out of 4, 50%

Nothing beats the winner-take-all of Game 7, of course. But Game 6 holds almost as much drama. One side can win it all, while the other fights for life and momentum. And now we’re assured of a Game 6, something the Giants didn’t face in their last two Series wins.

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Game 3: Royals 3, @Giants 2 —

Out of 76 no-DH World Series games since 1986, this was the 11th time that one team had no plate appearances by a non-pitcher substitute. It’s no surprise that those teams are 11-0, but they weren’t all blowouts. Five were decided by two runs or less, including last year’s Game 5, when Jon Lester pitched into the 8th, and his spot didn’t come up after the 7th.

• The previous one-run margin was 1996 Game 5: Leading 1-0 in the top of the 9th, Andy Pettitte was left to bat with two out and men on the corners. He flied out, then yielded a leadoff double and a groundout that put Chipper Jones on third with one away, but John Wetteland escaped with the 5th straight road win of that Series.
• The last time neither team batted a non-pitcher substitute was another pivotal Game 5, in 1981: Ron Guidry hit in the top of the 7th, one out and none on, striking out against Jerry Reuss. In the bottom half, he served back-to-back homers to Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager. Reuss made the last out in that inning, and had a clean 8th. Lou Piniella singled with one down in the 9th, but Reuss stayed, whiffing Aurelio Rodriguez to end it with the pitcher’s spot on deck. The Dodgers had won all three at home by one run, including another complete game, 5-4 by Fernando Valenzuela. (Tommy Lasorda used two pinch-hitters in that game, but none for Fernando, who batted in the home 8th with no out and a man aboard, and then closed it out one-two-three.)