What’s better than afternoon playoff baseball?

Beats me. I think it’s the best thing ever.

Bay Area fans might have differing opinions on that, but they’ve have had plenty to choose from. We’ve seen 49ers playoff games at windy Candlestick. Rainy baseball triumphs in October. U.S. Open golf at the Olympic Club. Warriors playoff mania. Big-time college hoops and Pac-12 championship football. Deep playoff runs for the Sharks. We’ve even had the America’s Cup come sailing through, providing an unlikely candidate. It’s all part of the richest sporting environment in the country.

But Tuesday’s NLCS Game3 matchup between the Giants and the Cards reminded us what’s best of all.

On a blustery fall day by the bay, Gregor Blanco laid down a perfect bunt in the10th inning, the Cardinals threw the ball away and Brandon Crawford scampered home with the winning run. Giants 5, Cardinals 4. Baseball wins.

The crowd went bonkers. The players exulted. Bartenders rejoiced. It was the perfect ending to the perfect afternoon in San Francisco. The happiest of happy hours commenced.

Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

This must be what it was like back when Ruth and Gehrig and Branca and Thomson roamed the field. We all know that night games bring more money and more eyeballs, but there’s something about the day game that brings out the essence of baseball. It just feels right and looks right.

Giants clubhouse manager Mike Murphy remembers when all playoff games were played during the day.

“I think they see the ball better,” said Murphy, who has been with the Giants since they moved west. “It’s better baseball to me.”

Giants catcher Buster Posey, a true throwback, also sees it that way: “Day games are always fun here. I like day games.”

The players’ take is almost beside the point. The argument for day games centers on the fans. It’s about the anticipation in the streets on a workday weekday. It’s about kids cutting school and scampering around Willie Mays Plaza. It’s about a hazy sky playing tricks on outfielders. And the afternoon wind snapping the outfield flags stiff, right to center, center to left.

I wish some MLB suits could’ve walked AT&T Park with me Tuesday, inside and out. They’d have seen the hordes gathering in South Beach, celebrating this day-game rarity like some sort of holiday. They’d have seen the city’s swells, preening and partying at a pregame brunch. They’d have seen the left-fieldbleacher crowd, basking in a weak autumn sun, alternately cursing a game-tying home run and cheering the subsequent redemption.

Baseball should realize what an opportunity it has this time of year. With the NFL on its heels, reeling from domestic-violence scandals and concussion concerns, these wonderful games should be broadcast, loud and proud. They should be on free television stations, not subscription channels like MLB Network or obscure cable channels like Fox Sports1. And afternoon games would serve to separate baseball’s postseason from football’s ever-widening footprint.

An opportunity has been lost these past few days, it feels, to show off the game and reclaim some of the nation for its pastime. Tuesday’s midday classic was exactly the type of thing that people want to see.

The postseason returns to twilight now, with Games4 and 5 starting at 5:07 p.m. in San Francisco. The shadows will grow longer, the atmosphere colder. And that’s fine. The Giants and Cardinals have proven they can play the game at its highest levels, regardless of temperature, time zone or venue.

But we’ll always remember this glorious Tuesday afternoon at Third and King. A walk-off bunt steals the win in broad daylight.

What could be better than that?

Al Saracevic is Sports Editor of The San Francisco Chronicle. E-mail: asaracevic@sfchronicle.com