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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;KANSAS CITY \u2014 Eric Hosmer was asked how it feels to force Game 7 of the World Series, and what that feels like, and could he describe how it feels and explain his feelings, and nobody seemed to notice the bucket. It was at the Royals\u2019 first baseman\u2019s feet. It is silver. It sits between Hosmer\u2019s locker and Terrance Gore\u2019s. It holds three bottles of champagne and a bottle of Johnnie Walker. People have been sending liquor throughout this postseason. Hosmer has been saving it for the end.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The end is hours away.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Giants-Royals, Game 7 of the 2014 World Series, Wednesday night. If this doesn\u2019t make you tingle, at least a little, then you have no use for baseball and probably shouldn\u2019t be allowed to vote next week.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The anticipation began earlier than usual; in a sense, Game 7 of the 2014 World Series started before Game 6 could find the door. This is what happens when the home team, trailing the series 3-2, puts up seven runs in the second inning, as the Royals did. Everybody starts thinking about tomorrow night. Royals fans celebrated without worry. Giants fans threw out Game 6 like a piece of damaged fruit, knowing they could immediately reach for the next one.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mostly, the managers knew they wouldn\u2019t have to use their best relievers in Game 6, and that is one of many reasons this Game 7 is shaping up to be an epic. The Royals have a rested Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland lurking in the bullpen. The Giants have starter Madison Bumgarner, who could finish one of the best postseasons ever with some relief dominance on two days rest. Bumgarner doesn\u2019t just have the Royals\u2019 number. He has their bank accounts and e-mail passwords, and he changes the code on their garage-door openers because it amuses him.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With every Game 7 strike, each team will get a little closer to a seemingly unsolvable pitching force. When Hosmer was asked about the possibility of facing the new Mr. Octob(umgarn)er, he said, \u201CHopefully we have a lead before we get to him. That\u2019s all I can say.\u201D You can be sure the Giants are thinking the same thoughts about Herrera, Davis and Holland.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It should come down to those pitchers, throwing noise and fury, and that would be a nice change. What is worth saying about Game 6? Giants starter Jake Peavy had a rough go, which is not surprising because he has quietly been one of the worst postseason performers in all of sports. (Peavy now has a 7.98 playoff ERA, astounding for a guy who won a Cy Young award.) The Royals are resilient, but we knew that, too. They were assumed dead in their Wild-Card game against the A\u2019s until they get up and punched the coroner in the face.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022&lt;strong&gt;VERDUCCI&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;: Old school meets new style in Royals-Giants World Series&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hosmer said he was hanging on every pitch, regardless of the score, because of the stakes. He even hit one after calling timeout (the Kauffman Stadium crowd was so loud, he didn\u2019t realize the TO was granted), then hit one that counted, giving him the rare at-bat when he was 2-for-1, for a perfect 2.000 batting average.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That was a fitting moment in an unusual series. This has been a sequence of lopsided games between evenly matched teams. The winning margin was at least five runs in five of the six games, yet the Giants have scored 27 runs in this Series and the Royals have scored 25, and those numbers would be probably be dead-even if the Giants had let Hunter Strickland pitch to two more batters. Each team has scored in double-digits once and been shut out once.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hosmer said he \u201Cwouldn\u2019t mind a lopsided one,\u201D but this World Series deserves better than that, and it sure feels like we\u2019re going to get it.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;World Series Games 7 are rare treats. Baseball has only had one since 2002: the Cardinals-Rangers tilt in 2011, which had a Cardinals-have-got-this feel the whole way because St. Louis had won Game 6 in preposterous, dramatic fashion, and teams that lose games like that rarely recover. (The Rangers actually took a 2-0 lead to start Game 7, but it evaporated by the end of the first inning.) Game 7 in 2002 had the same feel to it \u2014 the Giants blew a 5-0 lead in Game 6 and seemed destined to lose Game 7 in Anaheim, and they did.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022&lt;strong&gt;ROSENBERG: For Juan Perez, death of friend Taveras overshadows Series&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the three World Series Games 7 before that were among the most famous games in baseball history. There was Luis Gonzalez\u2019s broken-bat Series-winning single against Mariano Rivera in 2001. There was Edgar Renteria\u2019s walk-off single for the Marlins against Cleveland in 1997, which Hosmer watched from the stands in Miami. And there was Jack Morris\u2019 10-inning shutout against John Smoltz and the Braves in 1991.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Home teams usually win, but that\u2019s not guaranteed. Game 6 losers usually lose Game 7, but that probably doesn\u2019t apply here, because it\u2019s not like the Giants lost in excruciating fashion, and with titles in 2010 and 2012, they don\u2019t carry a huge burden for their city.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nobody knows who the hero will be this time. Nobody knows who will have a bat in his hand with runners on-base and the championship at stake, or who will be on the mound. That\u2019s the beauty of baseball. We just know that Hosmer will either open that alcohol and enjoy it forever, or stand and answer questions next to the saddest little bucket in America.\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10/29/world-series-game-6-royals-giants-set-game-7>