Wade Davis’ brilliant season is a big reason the Royals are in the World Series. (USATSI)
Wade Davis' brilliant season is a big reason the Royals are in the World Series. (USATSI)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Wade Davis does many difficult things, but standing out in the Royals' broadly dominant bullpen is perhaps among his most remarkable feats. KC's relief corps is on the short-short-list of the very best in the game, and its importance was etched in sharp relief during the ALCS sweep of the Orioles. Davis isn't the compiler of saves, but one could submit, credibly, that he's the most important member of that bullpen, the fulcrum that delivers the ball from a solid but unspectacular rotation to the shutdown closer Greg Holland.

By now, you know the back-story. Davis was the presumed lesser piece of the James Shields-Wil Myers-Jake Odorizzi blockbuster of December 2012 (2014 bWAR: Davis, 3.7; Shields 3.1; Odorizzi, 1.2; Myers -0.9). Then he was fringe starter with a perhaps fringier shoulder. Now? Now he's the best reliever in baseball.

Yes, we'll need his "best reliever in baseball" status to be cemented over time, but there's no doubting the sky-scraping brilliance of his 2014 season. In 72 regular season innings, Davis gave up eight runs. He struck out 39.1 percent of the batters he faced, and he walked just 8.2 percent of same. Most incredibly, Davis hasn't given up a home run since Aug. 24 ... of 2013. He's been similarly dominant this postseason.

Like a lot of starters who get dispatched to the pen, Davis added velocity after being stripped of the need to pace himself so carefully. As manager Ned Yost pointed out before Game 4, Davis's hard stuff "jumped from 91, 92 to 96, 97." That helps, obviously. What also helps is that Davis, unlike a lot of starters who get dispatched to the pen, still throws three pitches. We're accustomed to the usual fastball-slider or maybe fastball-changeup relievers, but Davis comes at opposing hitters with a four-seamer, a cutter and a hard, spike curve.

Davis realizes that gives him options, especially relative to his bullpen peers. "If you've got one pitch that day, then that's a good thing," Davis said on the field after Game 4. "So of the three you're hoping for one you can execute and get a couple of outs."

It's not quite that simple, of course, but Davis does have a consistent approach against both sides: fastball heavy with cutter and curve mixed in. It also helps that the cutter and curve don't have as much of a platoon weakness as, say, the slider -- the favored breaking pitch of so many power relievers. He works low and away to both sides and has exceptional command when throwing to his favorite corner of the zone. That plus his deep reliever's repertoire explains why Davis not only misses bats, but also shows solid ground-ball tendencies while also flashing a knack for inducing infield popups. So if you are able to put bat on ball against Davis, then you're probably going to be reduced to making weak contact.

We already talked about the zero home runs in 2014 ("I've gotten very lucky," Davis said of that streak), but in those 72 regular season innings, Davis also gave up just three doubles and two triples. That comes to 279 batters faced and five (!) extra-base hits allowed. There's limiting hard contact, and then there's utterly suffocating it.

Given all that and given his success in 2014, does Davis ever envision another crack at the rotation? "I've always been a three-pitch pitcher," Davis said, "and I don't worry about what's going to happen in the years ahead."

Fair enough: Let's stick to this year. Davis' 2014, once you adjust his workload to reflect the norms of his era, is perhaps one of the 25 or so greatest relief seasons in history. Opinions will vary on the precise ranking, but the thoroughgoing brilliance of what Davis has done in his first season out of the bullpen is unassailable.

If there are another four wins left in the 2014 Royals, then Davis will surely play a role in them. They really can't do it any other way.