It's always good in baseball when you have the personnel to shorten the game, much in the same way football teams like to do the same thing by running the football ala the 2014 Dallas Cowboys.
In baseball you do accomplish that goal with a stellar bullpen to back up even decent starting pitching.
On Wednesday night as the Royals were staring down an 0-2 deficit in the World Series in a 2-2 dogfight, the Kansas City offense got to Giants starter Jake Peavy in the bottom of the sixth inning and continued an onslaught on reliever Hunter Strickland en route to a five-run sixth inning.
And at that point, it was all over but the crying for the Giants thanks to the Royals standout bullpen.
The Royals had already turned the game over to Kelvin Herrera, who ended up throwing 1 2/3 scoreless innings before giving way to arguably the league's best setup man Wade Davis, who struck out two in a scoreless inning. Then closer Greg Holland came in to pitch the ninth and struck out the side in yet another scoreless frame despite it not being a save situation.
That's the thing about the Royals' relievers with a finite amount of games remaining this season. They can go all out and pitch just about every day with the built-in off-days during the World Series. And if they Royals have a lead in the sixth inning, the Giants can pretty much forget about it.
