Thanks to another marvelous effort by left-hander Madison Bumgarner, a few timely hits and sloppy play and/or thinking by the opponent, the San Francisco Giants beat the Kansas City Royals in Game 5 of the World Series 5-0 on Sunday night.
Bumgarner pitched a four-hitter, throwing 117 pitches in what's likely to be his final appearance of the 2014 season. Would he be available in a Game 7 in relief?
"You know it," Bumgarner told Fox TV's Ken Rosenthal after the game.
With the Giants leading 3 games to 2, the Series returns to Kansas City on Tuesday night. Forty-two times out of 63 (67 percent), the winner of Game 5 has won the Series.
Here are the top five moments from Game 5:
WRITING MADISON BUMGARNER'S NAME IN GIANTS' LINEUP CARD
For the third time in four career World Series starts, Bumgarner pitched at least seven innings without allowing a run. His career ERA in the Fall Classic is a record 0.29 — one earned run allowed in 31 innings. He struck out eight, but it seemed like more.
"For some reason, I keep getting real lucky this time of year," Bumgarner said.
BRANDON CRAWFORD STEPS UP WHEN ROYALS STEP BACK
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The Giants' No. 8 hitter put his team on the board with a one-out RBI grounder to the right side in the second inning — with the Kansas City infield curiously playing back. Any kind of run for Bumgarner had the potential to be huge. Crawford added an RBI single in the fourth.
ROYALS 'D' NOT SO TIGHT

The Royals made no errors until the eighth, but shortstop Alcides Escobar failed to field a grounder hit in the hole by Travis Ishikawa in the fourth. It went under his glove for a single — and he might have nicked it — but he should have made the play. Coming with two outs, it moved Pablo Sandoval to second base and helped set up Crawford's second RBI.
YOST LACKS AGGRESSION WITH PINCH HITTING IN FIFTH
It would have been unconventional to pinch-hit for pitcher James Shields in the top of the fifth, but certainly Royals manager Ned Yost should have used Billy Butler or even Nori Aoki (stronger against lefties, oddly) to bat for Jarrod Dyson with one out and Omar Infante on second base. Bumgarner was vulnerable there and it doesn't happen often. Kansas City didn't get a better chance to change the game's trajectory. Yost also picked a curious time to pull a double-switch later on, so that Jayson Nix could get an at-bat in the eighth inning.
JUAN PEREZ ADDS INSURANCE

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Several Giants players have come over to my TV in dugout when heard news abt Taveras..Juan Perez in tears in dugout..
— Erin Andrews (@ErinAndrews) October 27, 2014
Crying in the dugout earlier in the game when news came of the death of countryman Oscar Taveras in the Dominican Republic, Perez put his grief on hold for a moment and hit a two-run double to extend San Francisco's lead in the eighth inning (he advanced to third on an error). His emotions must have been hard to bear.
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David Brown is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter!
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