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It was a week of titanic series within divisions, with the Brewers and Cubs battling in the NL Central, the Dodgers and Padres duking it out in the NL West and the Rays and Yankees playing some dramatic games in the AL East. But there remains no team hotter than the Braves, who are No. 1 in our Power Rankings for the second week in a row. They also hold onto a nine-game lead in the division \u2026 and only have three games against anyone in the NL East until July 4 weekend. They may not be going anywhere.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
These rankings, as always, are compiled from MLB.com contributors whose names you can find at the bottom of this (and every) piece, but the words are mine. If you dislike the rankings, yell at all of us. But if you dislike the words, feel free to yell at me<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 1. Braves (previously: 1)<\/strong> 2. Rays (previously: 4)<\/strong> 3. Dodgers (previously: 2)<\/strong> 4. Brewers (previously: 6)<\/strong> 5. Yankees (previously: 5)<\/strong> 6. Padres (previously: 7)<\/strong> 7. Guardians (previously: 9)<\/strong> 8. Cubs (previously: 3)<\/strong> 9. Cardinals (previously: 8)<\/strong> 10. Phillies (previously: 11)<\/strong> 11. Pirates (previously: 10)<\/strong> 12. Diamondbacks (previously: 19)<\/strong> 13. A\u2019s (previously: 12)<\/strong> 14. White Sox (previously: 14)<\/strong> 15. Mariners (previously: 13)<\/strong> 16. Blue Jays (previously: 18)<\/strong> 17. Nationals (previously: 16)<\/strong> 18. Reds (previously: 17)<\/strong> 19. Rangers (previously: 16)<\/strong> 20. Twins (previously: 25)<\/strong> 21. Mets (previously: 23)<\/strong> 22. Red Sox (previously: 22)<\/strong> 23. Marlins (previously: 21)<\/strong> 24. Orioles (previously: 24)<\/strong> 25. Tigers (previously: 20)<\/strong> 26. Royals (previously: 26)<\/strong> 27. Astros (previously: 27)<\/strong>
You name it, the Braves are doing it well. The most fun thing they\u2019re doing is putting together comeback victories: They have an MLB-high 18 comeback wins. Every single bad vibe from last year has disappeared in 2026 — so far.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
They were this<\/em> close to winning two straight over the Yankees and taking a whopping 6 1\/2 game lead in the division, but all told, 4 1\/2 will work. The five-game win streak that ended with Sunday\u2019s Aaron Judge walk-off homer is, in fact, the Rays\u2019 fourth<\/em> different five-game win streak this season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
With everything else that the Dodgers can do, it almost seems unfair when they have a shutdown bullpen. They do have one, though: They\u2019ve compiled a 38-inning scoreless streak<\/a> among their relievers. The best two during this span: Kyle Hurt (five innings, five appearances), and Jack Dreyer (two innings, two appearances).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Brewers were feeling on top of the world after beating the Dodgers — of course the team that knocked them out in the NLCS last year — on Friday night, their 12th win of their previous 14 games. But then the Dodgers reasserted their dominance, outscoring the Brewers 16-4 in the next two games and leaving Milwaukee frustrated — and knowing what their measuring stick is — once again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
No matter how the Rays series turned out, the biggest takeaway for the Yankees was going to be how good Gerrit Cole looked in his season debut, his first start since Game 5 of the 2024 World Series. Six shutout innings? Just two hits? That will work. \u201cIt was a long road, and yet at some point tonight, it was almost like I\u2019d never left,\u201d Cole said. \u201cIt felt really, really good to be out there.\u201d For what it\u2019s worth: The Yankees and Rays don\u2019t play again until July 6, so that Aaron Judge walk-off homer<\/a> might not be the worst thing for them to make the Rays think about for six weeks or so.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Much has been made about Fernando Tatis Jr.\u2019s power outage, but let\u2019s not look past how much Manny Machado is struggling. He\u2019s 9-for-79 in May, hitting .114 and scoring just a measly eight runs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
It sure doesn\u2019t look like the Guardians are going to need a wild comeback like last year to win the AL Central, or, at the very least, to beat the Tigers. After being as much as 15 1\/2 games back before passing them last year, the Guardians are now a whopping 10.5 games up<\/em> on them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Cubs had an absolute nightmare of a week: It\u2019s difficult to remember this was the No. 1 team in our rankings just two weeks ago. For all their pitching injuries, it\u2019s the hitting that\u2019s falling apart on them: They\u2019ve lost 12 of 14 and in those 12 losses, they scored a total of 26 runs. You actually heard some boos at Wrigley Field this weekend, if you can believe that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
This Jordan Walker is nothing like that<\/em> Jordan Walker, something the Reds found out this weekend. He had been 0-for-his-previous-28 at-bats against the Reds before this weekend \u2026 and then went out and homered twice with seven RBIs in his first two games against them this year. He\u2019s first in OPS-plus (176) in the National League right now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Bryce Harper is on pace for 37 homers this season, which means he just needs to tick it up one little notch to be on pace for 40. If he reaches 40, it\u2019ll be the first time he has done that since 2015 \u2026 and only the second time in his career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
It\u2019s getting downright mean to keep mentioning how little the Pirates are supporting Paul Skenes, but \u2026 in his four May starts, they have scored a total<\/em> of six runs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The D-backs\u2019 recent surge has coincided (and of course been driven by) an uptick in quality starting pitching performances. MLB.com\u2019s Steve Gilbert noticed and talked<\/a> to Jeremy Bleich, the Diamondbacks\u2019 new assistant GM to oversee pitching strategy and development, about it. I highly recommend the piece: It gives individual insight on each pitcher in a way that\u2019s hard to get from front offices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Nick Kurtz is now at 47 consecutive games getting on base, which means he\u2019s 11 short of reaching the top 10 all time<\/a>. He\u2019d reach that on Saturday, June 6, against the Astros. The all-time record is Ted Williams\u2019 84 in 1949; he would tie that on July 5 against the Marlins, if you\u2019re up for tracking such things.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
MLB.com\u2019s Travis Sawchik, who is great, dug into whether or not the White Sox\u2019 hot start was for real this week. His verdict? Yes<\/a>! You\u2019ve got to read the whole piece, but the key takeaway: The slugging improvements look like they may be built to last.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Mariners aren\u2019t exactly doing backflips about their slow start, but there remains plenty of reason for optimism. Fangraphs still has them with the second-best odds in the American League to win the World Series (behind the Yankees, actually) \u2026 and their series with the A\u2019s this week could get them back in first place in the AL West.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Don\u2019t fret about the Blue Jays just yet, Jays fans. Even though they started this season 25-27 after 52 games, that is, in fact, the exact same record they had after 52 games last year. (They, uh, ended up with a better record than that by the end of the season.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
It really hasn\u2019t quite been appreciated enough just how many runs the Nationals are scoring this year. They lead the Majors in runs scored and entered Sunday with an average of 5.40 runs per game, which would be on par with the 2019 team (5.39 runs).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Reds have a serious problem with the NL Central. They are 25-15 against teams not in the NL Central, but 2-10 in<\/em> the NL Central. That is a problem, considering, you know, the NL Central is the division they play in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
For all the problems with abundance the Rangers have had — they\u2019ve failed six times to win a third game in a row — they aren\u2019t doing anything that\u2019s knocking themselves out of the Wild Card race. Even with all their struggles, they\u2019re 1 1\/2 games out of the final Wild Card spot. Though that says more about the American League Wild Card race than it does the Rangers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Royce Lewis has been struggling for a while now, but it was still quite something to see him sent down to Triple-A St. Paul<\/a> this week. The former top overall pick had a .920 OPS in 58 games in 2023 but is all the way down to .540 in his first 31 this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Mets have been over .500 since that wretched losing streak last month, but their offensive woes can be summed up well by their loss to the Marlins on Friday night. Juan Soto went 2-for-3 with a homer \u2026 but the Mets lost 2-1 because the rest of the lineup went 1-for-25 with 10 strikeouts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
You should go to Fenway Park any time you have the opportunity, but if you\u2019re a fan of the opposing team, you should really<\/em> go right now. The Red Sox have the worst home record in baseball at 8-17 and have won only one home series this year<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Marlins traded for former top Reds prospect<\/a> Rece Hinds, who, in his first week in the Majors in 2024, won the NL Player of the Week Award by hitting five homers. He has only two homers since and has a career .172 average, which is why the Reds let him go. But he\u2019s still only 25 and, one suspects, will be up in Miami at some point after being sent down to Jacksonville.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
You weren\u2019t really worried about Gunnar Henderson, were you? The star shortstop, who was under the Mendoza line briefly last week, is red-hot, going 14-for-38 over his past nine games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The collapse at the end of last year is apparently not over. Entering Sunday, their record since the All-Star Break last year was 52-74, the fourth-worst in baseball. It\u2019s a little worrisome — but probably inevitable — that you\u2019re starting to hear Tarik Skubal trade rumors again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
After winning the World Series in 2015, the Royals went eight years without a winning record before getting above .500 the past two seasons. They are in danger of falling backward again: They haven\u2019t been as far under .500 as they were this weekend since their 106-loss season in 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Astros are still climbing uphill at this point, but they did do something they hadn\u2019t done in 14 years this weekend: They won a series at Wrigley Field<\/a>. They had not done that since 2012 \u2026 when they were still in the NL Central, with the Cubs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n