After a lengthy layoff between postseason games, baseball returns on Tuesday night as the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals open the World Series at Kauffman Stadium.

Throughout the playoffs both the Giants and Royals have looked like clubs of destiny, but the time has come to determine who will be remembered as the Major League's best team. Kansas City has won all eight of their postseason games, while San Francisco has been impressive as well in winning eight of their 10 contests.

I’m sure you’ve heard the popular narrative -- Kansas City and San Francisco were both Wild Card entrants and neither won 90 games. The Royals hadn’t even been to the playoffs since winning the World Series in 1985, but they look like seasoned veterans. The Giants, meanwhile, have appeared in the Fall Classic every other year dating back to 2010. Oh by the way, they won it all in 2010 and 2012.

The regular season seems like forever ago and we’ve learned that the team that performs best over 162 games isn’t always best prepared for the playoffs, but clubs rarely change drastically in terms of production. The Giants and Royals both employed middling offenses this year with San Francisco having edges in OPS (.699 to .690), home runs (132 to 95) and runs per game (4.1 to 4.0). As you might expect, Kansas City best San Francisco on the bases with nearly 100 more steals (153 to 56).

How have things changed in October?

The Royals have been the better offensive team in the playoffs with advantages in OPS (.721 to .638), home runs (8 to 5) and runs per game (5.25 to 4.1). It has been more a drastic change in production from Kansas City than any significant change from San Francisco. It's worth noting that the Giants have had to face better pitching in the LDS and LCS rounds. Still, it is impressive the Ned Yost’s club has been able to score 31.25% more runs in the playoffs than they did in the regular season.

Kansas City has swiped 13 bags in their eight playoff games, which is just two fewer than the other nine playoff entrants have totaled combined. Speed will be key in the World Series as Buster Posey and the San Francisco pitching staff will look to keep the Royals in check. Making smart decisions with the baseball and executing key defensive plays will be a top priority for Bruce Bochy and Co., especially after they had a front row seat as the St. Louis Cardinals fumbled multiple times in the NLCS.

It’s unlikely that Posey and his battery mate will keep the Royals entirely contained on the bases, but they have the discipline to keep Yost and his staff from stealing a championship solely with their feet.

The best starting pitcher in the series is Madison Bumgarner, which is a huge advantage for the Giants. James Shields, who carries the nickname “Big Game James” has a reputation that he hasn’t lived up to this month, will oppose Bumgarner in Game 1 and then perhaps again in Game 5 depending on how the first three games shake out.

Bumgarner, the MVP of the NLCS, has a 1.42 ERA, 0.76 WHIP and 28 strikeouts against just five walks in 31.2 playoff innings. If he’s able to dominate in his starts as he has so far, San Francisco will be in great position to win their third title in five years.

Shields, meanwhile, is coming off some mediocre pitching and a passed kidney stone. In 16 innings this postseason, the right-hander has a 5.63 ERA, 1.63 WHIP and 15 strikeouts against five walks. He’s given up more home runs and hits than Bumgarner, who has thrown nearly twice the innings.

The entirely of this World Series will pivot on Bumgarner and Shields. The Royals traded Wil Myers to the Tampa Bay Rays for Wade Davis and Shields, who was supposed to help push them over the edge. Both have helped do so -- Shields was very good and very reliable during the regular season and Davis has been a shutdown reliever -- but “over the edge” now becomes the Promised Land.

Shields doesn’t have to match Bumgarner frame-for-frame, especially with Kansas City’s bullpen lined up in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, but he’ll have to give Yost six quality innings and hope the offense is able to get to Bumgarner, who is averaging nearly eight innings per start in October.

If the Giants aren’t able to win with Bumgarner on the mound, it won’t be surprising if the Royals are able to win a short series. On the other hand, if Bumgarner dominates, San Francisco will be in great position to end Kansas City’s magical run. He’s essentially a 6-foot-5 seesaw.

After Bumgarner-Shields, we’ll see Jake Peavy/Yordano Ventura, Tim Hudson/Jeremy Guthrie and Ryan Vogelsong/Jason Vargas. Those three matchups are impossible to predict. The Giants might have a staff with more experience, but in terms of stuff and recent results the Royals are more than capable of winning on the shoulders of a 23-year-old with a raw shoulder (Ventura) or a 31-year-old with a 4.20 career ERA (Vargas).

The Royals clearly have the more reliable bullpen with the Kelvin Herrera-Davis-Greg Holland combination, but Bochy is a better game manager than Yost and the Royals can’t rely on Herrera-Davis-Holland to continue to dominate in historic ways. There will be at least one game in which Yost will have to decide whether to leave his starter in for the seven or even eighth inning or hand the ball over to the bullpen as he feels most comfortable.

That decision will loom as large as how Bumgarner-Shields shakes out in the first and fifth games. The Giants have a heart of the order -- Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval and Hunter Pence -- that famously feasts on fastballs.

Kansas City hasn’t lost a game since Sept. 27, but San Francisco has never lost a playoff series with Bochy and Posey. How will the Royals react if they lose a game? Will they panic if that loss comes in Game 1? Can the battle-tested Giants take a few punches from the Royals at an energized Kauffman Stadium and still stay on their feet?

Ultimately, the Giants have Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey, the two best players in the series. Having the best player isn’t the be-all and end-all in playoff baseball (look at how the Royals bested Mike Trout’s Angels and the Orioles topped Miguel Cabrera’s Tigers), but when the two best are comprised of one team’s battery that’s a difference-marker

Prediction: Giants in 6