It was nice to see that Maddon recognized it as a big series, didn't shy away from saying so, and then managed like these games meant more than the others. On the other side of things, I actually also think Bochy rightly (IMO) treated them like any other series with his veteran=championship core. At the end of the day, the young, hungry team who happened to be playing better baseball going in, swept the series and greatly improved their confidence going forward. If Bochy treated these games like they were any other series, then he was mistaken. They were hugely important in playoff positioning (granted, it might not have mattered all that much because the Dodgers got swept, but it does hurt one of their options badly) and, "veteran/championship core" or not, should have been treated as such. The odds swung greatly as a result. The playoffs odds swung greatly as a result of the game, but not necessarily as a result of how the manager's chose to "treat" the games.