Most casual fans, if asked who the greatest baseball team of this decade has been, would say the San Francisco Giants. After all, the Giants have won three World Series championships in a decade in which no other team has won more than one.
But the Giants have had some noticeable valleys alongside their very prominent peaks. In 2013, the Giants finished 76-86 and were eliminated from playoff contention on September 11. Following that day, in which the Giants were mathematically eliminated from defending their World Series championship, San Francisco played sixteen more games.
They finished 10-6, in theory a positive note upon which to conclude a mediocre season, but the games had a certain intrinsic hollowness to them.