The dynamic right fielder is just the kind of game-changer who could vault the San Francisco Giants to yet another October run—that is, if his strained oblique allows him to fulfill that role.
Looking around the league, Pence is far from the only wild card who will have a dramatic impact on how the playoff chase shakes out. The idea here is to focus in on those players and storylines that will have a significant but unpredictable influence during the home stretch.
The nine X-Factors that follow are ranked in order of the impact that each one could potentially make in the postseason hunt.