SAN FRANCISCO -- If you're a team that gets incredibly hot at the start of the year, baseball fans start wondering if a historically great season is unfolding. If you do it in September, you might carry that momentum to a World Series title.
If you do it in June, people don't notice quite as much, but it can be just as important. Just when it looked like division leaders were pulling away from the pack, a few teams that had been languishing in the middle caught fire.
The Atlanta Braves were the most notable example, winning 14 straight to remind the New York Mets that the NL East race didn't end in May.