KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tim Hudson came out of the shower late Tuesday night, a towel around his waist and another over his shoulder. He padded on shower shoes to his locker, dry-shaved his face, put on a blue plaid shirt and, at 39 years old, got to thinking more about what was ahead of him.

Had things gone differently over the previous three or four hours, he'd have been half-steered by beer by then, singing something about fires on the mountain and celebrating the San Francisco Giants and his good buddy, Jake Peavy.

Instead, the only sound in the visitors' clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium was the patter of water on bathroom tile, and the only unfilled space was just broad enough for Hudson, his teammates and whatever Game 7 of the World Series might hold.

"There's not a game after tomorrow," Hudson said, and this is what is presented to him after more than 3,000 innings and 469 starts and a career chasing this very ballgame.

It is of some irony that it comes now, of course, when his body has stiffened and his fastball has waned and he admittedly (if occasionally) finds himself creating new and (he hopes) improved pitches on the fly. Maybe this would have been a job spent better on the 20-game winner, the top-five Cy Young Award guy, the pitcher who'd blast through seven or eight innings and be ready for more.

View photos Madison Bumgarner has a 0.29 career ERA in the World Series. (USA Today) More

This, however, is the pitcher who remains, and this is his turn in what amounts to the Giants' 180th game, and 24 sets of eyes turn to him.

If not, then to Madison Bumgarner.

Yeah, nobody's that sentimental.

Four outs from Peavy and 20 from the bullpen Tuesday night netted the Giants a 10-0 shellacking and an invitation to Game 7. Bumgarner threw 117 pitches just Sunday night, and he'd have two – really, by game time, nearly all of three – days off. Asked how many pitches he believed he could throw if called upon, Bumgarner half-smiled and said, "Maybe 200, I don't know. As long as you're getting outs. Pitch counts are overrated."

Especially, presumably, on Oct. 29.

"I think it's overrated all the time," he said.

The slightest wobble out of Hudson, who has pitched reasonably well in the postseason and in Game 7 will oppose Kansas City Royals right-hander Jeremy Guthrie, and Bruce Bochy presumably will call on Bumgarner, whose 0.29 ERA in 31 World Series innings – Sunday night's four-hit shutout included – will be waiting.

Bochy does not start Bumgarner on short rest. He can't. He starts Hudson and hopes. He starts Hudson and keeps the bullpen door – and Bumgarner – greased.

Maybe there'll be an argument that if Bumgarner is that available, he should be that available in the first inning. But then who? Hudson, when Bumgarner realizes his arm isn't so fresh 70 hours after throwing 117 pitches? Ryan Vogelsong? He pitched Tuesday night. Tim Lincecum? Yusmeiro Petit again?

To borrow from Hunter Pence, sort of: No, no, no. He starts Hudson, who pitched into the sixth inning in Game 3, and who won't scare, and who is on regular rest, and has the resume and the savvy – if not the raw stuff anymore – to pull this off. And, you know, then Bumgarner. This is a series of a lot of good players and one, maybe two, great ones. Bumgarner, for sure, though, and maybe you understand a heart's desire to feed him as many innings as possible. The head says this is a 25-year-old whose left arm is special, and also impermanent.

Story continues