The ebb and flow of baseball is a funny thing that is both mysterious and extremely predictable. The way that teams can take varying routes to similar locations has a psychological impact that is as bizarre as it is completely sensible.
Take the San Francisco Giants four-game series against the Chicago Cubs, which just concluded. The Giants were returning home in dire need of some wins, recipients of a rude five-game losing streak and with enough players on the IL to field another baseball team (albeit an injured one). What they were facing was, for all intents and purposes, a blue-and-red tinted mirror.