The Dodgers and Giants have been the two best teams in the NL West the past several seasons, but it's actually been a long time since we had a truly close battle between the blood rivals for the NL West title.
Last season, the Dodgers won the division by eight games. In 2014, they won it by six games (and the Giants took the World Series, but they didn't face off in the playoffs). In 2013, it was the Dodgers by 11 games over Arizona with the Giants 16 back. In 2012, it was the Giants winning the division by eight over the Dodgers.
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Biggest Movers
7
Mariners
6
Astros
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | The Curse of the Official Power Rankings is broken. The Cubs haven't even lost a game since the last rankings came out, having taken eight in a row and 11 of their last 12. Maybe they like breaking silly, nonsensical made up stuff like "jinxes" or "curses." Hmm ... | -- | 0-0 | |
2 | In the span of a week and a half, the Nationals won four of seven against the Giants with a combined series score of 19-19. That would've been a pretty decent NLCS, no? | -- | 0-0 | |
3 | Remember all the talk about the Orioles' run differential and "unsustainable" record in one-run games in 2012? The Rangers are only plus-seven in differential and are 25-8 in one-run games right now. Hmm ... | 2 | 0-0 | |
4 | Last two series of the season: Three vs. Baltimore, three at Boston. Please let this be a three-team race heading into that! | 1 | 0-0 | |
5 | Manny Machado homered in each of the first three innings on Sunday, making him the second man ever to do that. I don't know if I've mentioned before that he's fun to watch. I haven't, right? I'm pretty sure it's a no. Hmm ... | 1 | 0-0 | |
6 | Corey Kluber's Cy Young win in 2014 was spurred on by a huge second half (9-3, 1.73 ERA). Right now, he has a 1.46 ERA in his last five starts. Hmm ... | -- | 0-0 | |
7 | Rookie of the Year? Set your sights higher with Corey Seager. He's in the MVP conversation. Top five right now, I'd say. Who is definitely ahead? Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Daniel Murphy, it feels like. Who else, though? | 1 | 0-0 | |
8 | Remember all the "don't retire, you're too good!" All-Star Game talk about David Ortiz? Big Papi is hitting .221/.287/.364 since the break. It's only 21 games and he could surely bounce back, but he's also 40. Even the greatest hitters of all-time lose out to Father Time. | 1 | 0-0 | |
9 | The crushing loss a few Sundays ago to the Cubs could have easily derailed the entire season. Instead, the Mariners -- after losing their next game -- have won seven of eight. | 7 | 0-0 | |
10 | Beginning Aug. 23, the Tigers have 35 games remaining. Of those, only SEVEN come against teams with winning records. Hmm ... | 3 | 0-0 | |
11 | I still feel like they have another hot streak in them. Maybe getting the Orioles at home this coming weekend? Win that series and it propels them forward, possibly. | 1 | 0-0 | |
12 | You know who is having a very good under-the-radar season? Martin Prado (.324/.377/.437). | 1 | 0-0 | |
13 | No, I don't care that Yoenis Cespedes played golf during the season. Nor should you. | 2 | 0-0 | |
14 | They were within 6 1/2 games of the Cubs for over a week. Since then, the Cardinals have lost seven of their last 10 and that includes a 3-5 record against the Reds and Braves. | 2 | 0-0 | |
15 | An ongoing theme in this portion of the Official Power Rankings: Wild-card contenders (Mets, Cards, Pirates, Rockies) playing less than good against bad teams. The Pirates lost two of three to the Braves last week, which came on the heels of being swept by the Brewers. They have now, however, won three of four (against the Reds and Padres). Hopefully, for their sake, things have been fixed, because a road trip to L.A. (Dodgers) and San Francisco awaits, beginning Friday. | 2 | 0-0 | |
16 | No, I actually don't think Friday is going to be A-Rod's final game in Major League Baseball. | 3 | 0-0 | |
17 | They were 2 1/2 games out after a win on July 27. Since then, the Astros are 3-9. The upcoming schedule isn't fun, either. After two more with The Saboteurs, the Astros get the Blue Jays, Cardinals, Orioles and Pirates. | 6 | 0-0 | |
18 | The Rockies have now lost five of their last six. No one is running away with the second wild card (see above comments), but the Rockies were so far out, they can't afford stumbles like this. | 4 | 0-0 | |
19 | It's about time to chalk this up as a lost season for Alex Gordon, right? I know he had the injury, but he's played in 81 games and it's Aug. 10. It's hard to see him turning everything around quickly at this point. He needs an offseason to regroup. | 1 | 0-0 | |
20 | Remember how much so many people would hate on Adam Dunn? Todd Frazier is hitting .213 with a .299 on-base percentage (both are terrible in case you somehow didn't know that) ... and 31 home runs. Does Frazier avoid the ire just because he plays third base? Hmm ... | -- | 0-0 | |
21 | The last series The Saboteurs lost came against the Braves, naturally, because they were looking to sabotage the Braves' chances at getting the number one overall draft pick next season. It all comes back to the sabotage with this group. | -- | 0-0 | |
22 | There was a time the Phillies lost 13 of 14 games. So they are actually one game over .500 other than that. Obviously, you can't just erase that portion of the season in the standings, but from a team expected to be much worse than this, that's a very good sign of how things have progressed. | 2 | 0-0 | |
23 | That's five straight losses as the best player in baseball continues to be wasted. Kole Calhoun really deserves better than this. (Yes, I'm kidding, guys. Settle down) | -- | 0-0 | |
24 | One of the prospects (Jharel Cotton) they got back in the Josh Reddick/Rich Hill trade threw a no-hitter in Triple-A on Tuesday. That's pretty cool. | 1 | 0-0 | |
25 | 3-4 since last week for the Reds, but all against .500-plus teams and the Reds are still 14-9 since the All-Star break. | 1 | 0-0 | |
26 | Their last eight games came against the Padres, Diamondbacks and Braves. The Brewers went 2-7 in those games. Still, I can't go any lower than this because this team was only nine games under .500 as late as July 31. I could see arguments for putting them last due to that being the day before trading away an All-Star catcher and their closer, but I'm just not willing to throw out the entire body of work after nine games. Not yet. If they lose Wednesday and Thursday to the Braves and then are swept by the Reds this coming weekend, you can count on number 30 next week. | 4 | 0-0 | |
27 | What? Too high? The Braves are 6-1 in the last week, 9-4 since July 24 and 14-13 since July 6. That's worthy of a bump, albeit a modest one. As noted in the space above, we still have body of work to consider. | 2 | 0-0 | |
28 | Evan Longoria's summer of power continues. He's up to 25 homers in 110 games. His career high in home runs is 33, which was set back in 2009. He had just 21 last year in 670 plate appearances. | 1 | 0-0 | |
29 | Travis Jankowski is 13 for 27 in August with four multi-hit games out of seven. Also, Jankowski is a pretty cool name. Something like a 70-grade on the 20-80 scale. | 1 | 0-0 | |
30 | Good to take the series against the Brewers, but there's nowhere to go here. The Braves are red hot, the Twins have been playing well for a while and no one else really deserves to be last over the D-Backs. Maybe the Brewers or Padres distinguish themselves before next week or the Reds/Braves/Rays/Twins group gets all kinds of ugly again. | -- | 0-0 |