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 … and only have three games against anyone in the NL East until July 4 weekend.
They may not be going anywhere.
These rankings, as always, are compiled from MLB.com contributors whose names you can find at the bottom of this 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 .
1.
Braves You name it, the Braves are doing it well.
The most fun thing they’re 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.
2.
Rays They were this 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’s Aaron Judge walk-off homer is, in fact, the Rays’ fourth different five-game win streak this season.
3.
Dodgers With everything else that the Dodgers can do, it almost seems unfair when they have a shutdown bullpen.
They do have one, though: They’ve compiled a 38-inning scoreless streak among their relievers.
The best two during this span: Kyle Hurt, and Jack Dreyer.
4.
Brewers 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.
5.
Yankees 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. “It was a long road, and yet at some point tonight, it was almost like I’d never left,” Cole said. “It felt really, really good to be out there.” For what it’s worth: The Yankees and Rays don’t play again until July 6, so that Aaron Judge walk-off homer might not be the worst thing for them to make the Rays think about for six weeks or so.
6.
Padres Much has been made about Fernando Tatis Jr.’s power outage, but let’s not look past how much Manny Machado is struggling.
He’s 9-for-79 in May, hitting .114 and scoring just a measly eight runs.
7.
Guardians It sure doesn’t 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 on them.
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8.
Cubs The Cubs had an absolute nightmare of a week: It’s difficult to remember this was the No. 1 team in our rankings just two weeks ago.
For all their pitching injuries, it’s the hitting that’s falling apart on them: They’ve 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.
9.
Cardinals This Jordan Walker is nothing like that 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 … and then went out and homered twice with seven RBIs in his first two games against them this year.
He’s first in OPS-plus in the National League right now.
10.
Phillies 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’ll be the first time he has done that since 2015 … and only the second time in his career.
11. Pirates It’s getting downright mean to keep mentioning how little the Pirates are supporting Paul Skenes, but … in his four May starts, they have scored a total of six runs.
12.
Diamondbacks The D-backs’ recent surge has coincided an uptick in quality starting pitching performances.
MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert noticed and talked to Jeremy Bleich, the Diamondbacks’ 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’s hard to get from front offices.
13.
A’s Nick Kurtz is now at 47 consecutive games getting on base, which means he’s 11 short of reaching the top 10 all time .
He’d reach that on Saturday, June 6, against the Astros.
The all-time record is Ted Williams’ 84 in 1949; he would tie that on July 5 against the Marlins, if you’re up for tracking such things.
14.
White Sox MLB.com’s Travis Sawchik, who is great, dug into whether or not the White Sox’ hot start was for real this week.
His verdict?
Yes
You’ve got to read the whole piece, but the key takeaway: The slugging improvements look like they may be built to last.
15.
Mariners The Mariners aren’t 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 … and their series with the A’s this week could get them back in first place in the AL West.
16.
Blue Jays Don’t 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.
17.
Nationals It really hasn’t 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.