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One. Game.

Throw everything out the window.

By Kevin Ruprecht
One more time.
One more time.
Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

I don't think I need to impress upon you the importance of the baseball game that is happening tonight. I'm going to anyway.

GAME 7 OF THE WORLD SERIES AT KAUFFMAN STADIUM!

Good. Let's remember what this is. This is the final game of the season. It's all over somewhere around 10-11pm stadium time. Everything we know, everything we've analyzed means, maybe, a little bit less than usual.

Tonight, there is a sample size of 1.

Mike Moustakas' true talent level may not be nearly what it has been in the postseason. Tonight, he can hit another homer. I can tell you things about what Tim Hudson does on the mound. He's a ground ball pitcher. The Royals could hit fly balls off him.

Jeremy Guthrie makes the start for the Royals, and there has been griping about his performance during the season. He is perfectly capable of spinning a web of weak contact and confusion tonight.

Wade Davis can throw multiple innings. Greg Holland can throw multiple innings. James Shields can come in and throw an inning. All the roles of the pitchers during the regular season can be thrown away. There should be no roles tonight. Every pitcher is available, except for Yordano Ventura.

I don't say these things to mean that tonight's outcome is entirely random. This is me trying to get out of my analytics shell to understand that trends can and will be overcome when the sample size is 1. Analysis can break down when the N equals 1. Analysis can break down when there are no more games after this one. The Royals scored 10 runs last night by hitting it where the fielders weren't for an extended period of time. Omar Infante had some good contact. The Royals had some bloops, but they also hit the ball hard. The same guys who had some of the least hard contact according to Mark Simon's (of ESPN) hard hit analytics.

It's about execution by the players at this point. Laying off crappy pitches. Swinging at good ones. Catching fly balls.

It's about Ned Yost recognizing that there is no tomorrow. Buck the convention. Screw the domes.

This is my way of saying to let yourselves go. Scream. Cheer. Clap. High-five. Bang your chairs. Make noise, wherever you are. Let the world hear you.

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