I walked into the baseball playoffs this month knowing I could root for four teams: The Nats, the O’s, the Cardinals and the Royals. I’d never had such a baseball bounty, and the chances were at least reasonable that two of them would face each other in the World Series.

And then there were the Giants. I like the Giants just fine, but they and the A’s were clearly the weakest teams in the playoffs, and I thought Pittsburgh would dispatch them in the wildcard play-in game. Just the opposite happened, and then the Giants went about surgically ruining everything bit by bit.

First they took care of the underachieving (again) Nats. Then they peeled apart the Cardinals. Meanwhile, the O’s got eliminated by the Royals — which was not a surprise to me after I saw what Kansas City did to the Angels, who for my money were baseball’s best team this year.

So: The Giants got rid of my two favorite teams in baseball and in the World Series were taking aim at my remaining rooting interest — really, the team of my college years (I went to college about 60 miles from Kansas City).  I was amazed the Royals had reached the Series but impressed by the way the obliterated their opponents in doing so. Surely, they could extend the magic and beat the Giants.

Well, you know how that went.

But I was happy for Michael Morse, who was once my favorite National. He’s had injury issues and his already-limited defensive skills have declined since he left Washington, but he was such a great player here and he had Wednesday’s game-winning hit. He’ll probably have to catch on with an American League team to stay in baseball, but now he’s got the ring he probably never could have gotten in D.C.