I’ve said for decades that there should be at least 3, and probably 4, days off before the start of any baseball playoff series. This allows it to be a fair test, as both teams can start their aces and pitch them as often as they want. Past World Series winners were decided by one team having short rest, and having to start pitchers who weren’t their aces, or pitch their ace on shorter rest. An argument can be made that a team should win the prior series in 4-5 games so they’ll get the days off, but each team plays a different team to get there.
This year, the Royals finished their series early by sweeping, and fortunately, the Giants were able to win their series 5 days prior to the start of the World Series. Had they lost the last game of the prior series and had to play another game or two, they wouldn’t have been able to pitch Bumgarner 3 times, and it’s very possible the Royals would have won the Series. This means that the outcome of who would be the champion would not be decided by who was the best team for that series, but by scheduling that penalized a team. That’s not what sports should be about.