Infinite possibilities for Game 7

— -- KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It had to come down to this, didn't it? In a postseason filled with surprise departures and improbable twists, the final fork in the road leads to a baseball stadium adjacent to a football stadium amid a gargantuan parking lot in the American heartland.

The San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals have reached that magical stage of October when pitchers' leashes are short-to-nonexistent, deep breaths are imperative and nobody knows who will emerge as this year's Bill Mazeroski, Edgar Renteria or Luis Gonzalez. They'll meet before 40,000-plus fans Wednesday night and determine who gets the bigger rings, the more lucrative shares and the opportunity to soil the clubhouse carpets one popped cork at a time.

For the 37th time in history and only the second time since 2002, a World Series will be going to a deciding Game 7. The Royals took care of that with a 10-0 victory over San Francisco that was a foregone conclusion after two innings.

Almost immediately, the postmortems shifted to the anticipation surrounding the finale and the tension and sense of history-in-motion that will envelop Kauffman Stadium. To borrow from Kansas City manager Ned Yost's favorite circus phraseology, everyone is operating without a net now. It's baseball, Karl Wallenda-style.

"A Game 7 in the World Series is a gift for everyone. It's pretty special," Giants outfielder Hunter Pence said. "It's incredibly entertaining for fans, for the world and for the game of baseball. Every time you step on the field, there are infinite possibilities. You can't predict the unpredictable."