Here are my MLB power rankings.
1. Philadelphia Phillies (34-14, No. 2 last week): The Phillies are 19-8 at home and will always have a big home-field advantage. This week’s photo finish has them a bob of ahead of Dodgers.
2. Los Angeles Dodgers (32-17, No. 1): The top three in the Dodgers’ lineup — Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman — is the best in baseball. After that, I’m not sure the lineup has the punch the Dodgers’ brass thinks it does.
3. New York Yankees (33-15, No. 4): After the massive loss of Gerrit Cole, this team has stayed relatively healthy. The lineup has some length to it and the rotation has come along nicely. Tip of the hat to manager Aaron Boone.
4. Baltimore Orioles (29-15, No. 3): The sky isn’t falling, but some of the decision-making on pitching personnel usage has been head-scratching.
5. Kansas City Royals (29-19, No. 6): Looks like Cole Ragans may be ready to join the rest of the rotation in pitching quality starts. This team has shown more staying power than imagined, but I’m still waiting on the other shoe to drop.
6. Atlanta Braves (26-16, No. 5): Can’t quite put my finger on it, but I’m sensing they’ve been thinking, “We’re the Atlanta Braves, do we really have to play hard tonight?”
7. Cleveland Guardians (30-17, No. 11): Any high hopes seemed to be blown to smithereens when Shane Bieber went down for the season with a UCL tear, but the Guardians have pieced it together on the mound and have scored more runs than any other team in AL Central.
8. Milwaukee Brewers (27-19, No. 9): The Brewers are third in the National League in runs scored behind only the Dodgers and Phillies. And they are second in the NL in on-base and OPS to the Dodgers. Slugger Rhys Hoskins (hamstring) is now on the injured list, though, and that hurts.
9. Texas Rangers (24-24, No. 7): Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford have not produced up to their pie-in-the-sky projection levels. The Max Scherzer deal is starting to look like a huge gamble that won’t pay off. He was recently moved to the 60-day injured list, which the club is trying to sell as merely a procedural move.
10. Tampa Bay Rays (25-23, No. 14): Don’t ever sleep on manager Kevin Cash. The Rays are getting healthy, and they just took three of four from the Red Sox at Fenway. They host the Red Sox and tough Royals for three apiece this week.
11. Minnesota Twins (24-22, No. 8)
12. Chicago Cubs (26-22, No. 10)
13. Houston Astros (21-26, No. 18)
14. Seattle Mariners (25-22, No. 12)
15. Detroit Tigers (23-23, No. 15)
16. San Diego Padres (24-24, No. 16)
17. Boston Red Sox (23-24, No. 13)
18. Arizona Diamondbacks (22-25, No. 17)
19. St. Louis Cardinals (20-26, No. 25)
20. San Francisco Giants (23-25, No. 24)
21. Pittsburgh Pirates (22-26, No. 26)
22. New York Mets (21-25, No. 23)
23. Washington Nationals (20-25, No. 22)
24. Toronto Blue Jays (20-25, No. 21)
25. Cincinnati Reds (19-28, No. 19)
26. Oakland Athletics (19-30, No. 20)
27. Los Angeles Angels (18-29, No. 27)
28. Chicago White Sox (14-33, No. 28)
29. Colorado Rockies (15-31, No. 29)
30. Miami Marlins (15-33, No. 30)