The San Francisco Giants’ overwhelming 9-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series on Monday night was a compilation of so many men, each enjoying his moment. Matt Cain, the veteran starter, pitched the Giants into their second World Series in three years with 5² / ₃ innings of scoreless ball. The Giants got hits from all nine of their starting players, runs from seven of them. Four relievers allowed the Cardinals little hope.

And at the heart of this: The Giants played their sixth game of this postseason which, had they lost, they would have started their offseason. They came back from a three-games-to-one deficit in the NLCS, and they will host the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the Word Series on Wednesday because of that uncommon, flirt-with-disaster resilience. In the final three games of this series, they outscored the Cardinals 20-1.

Game 1: Detroit @ San Francisco Wed, Oct 24 - 8:00 p.m. ET
Game 2: Detroit @ San Francisco Thu, Oct 25 - 8:00 p.m. ET
Game 3: San Francisco @ Detroit Sat, Oct 27 - 8:00 p.m. ET
Game 4: San Francisco @ Detroit Sun, Oct 28 - 8:00 p.m. ET
Game 5:* San Francisco @ Detroit Mon, Oct 29 - 8:00 p.m. ET
Game 6:* Detroit @ San Francisco Wed, Oct 31 - 8:00 p.m. ET
Game 7:* Detroit @ San Francisco Thu, Nov 1 - 8:00 p.m. ET