Aside from home cooking and cold pillows, nothing in life is more comforting than a strong week from whatever baseball team you happen to root for. Exacerbate that strong week into an 8-2 road trip and suddenly it’s a lot easier to sleep at night. Considering how tight the NL West has proven to be, the importance of the breathing room this stretch has given the Diamondbacks over the second place Los Angeles Dodgers can’t be overstated.
However, it’s also important to understand just how close behind the Giants are. 5.5 games might seem like a lot, but most of that ground could be made up over the course of these next 3 games.