MLB Power Rankings: Cards are wild as MLB heads in to homestretch

The great Red Sox juggernaut of 2018 hit a speed bump over the weekend, taking a sweep at the hands of the Rays in Tampa. It was their fourth consecutive loss to their Florida-based division mates and a sour follow-up to a strong showing over the Indians. A second shoulder injury to Chris Sale in the last three weeks coupled with a now-prolonged slump by Mookie Betts (.195 over the past two weeks) have heightened concerns somewhat. Regardless, the Sox still became the fifth team ever to reach 90 wins before playing 130 games, so there is still plenty of wiggle room to get things back on track.

It cannot be understated enough how important Jose Altuve is to the Astros, who went 8-13 without the reigning AL MVP. Since Altuve returned from injury on Aug. 21, the club embarked on a five-game winning streak and recaptured sole lead of the AL West standings. The week to come stands to mark the first time that Altuve, George Springer and Carlos Correa have spent a full week together in the lineup since late June.

The Yankees' favorable schedule has been paying dividends of late. They are winners of eight of their last nine, over the Blue Jays, Marlins and Orioles, and they posted seven or more runs in five of those games. The window of opportunity could be opening again for the Yankees, as they have inched within 6.5 games of the Red Sox in the AL East.

The Cubs set a bit of dubious history last week when they scored exactly one run in five straight games, and all of the runs came as solo homers. Miraculously, they went 2-3 in the stretch which set the table for the club to stay in control of the NL Central after rattling off five straight wins over the weekend. The run helped to weather the end of the DL stint of Kris Bryant, who is set to return to the club later this week.

The most pivotal week of the year lies ahead for the Athletics, who head to Houston for three games before returning home to host the Mariners for four games. The A’s have a chance to reclaim first place for the second time in the last two weeks while also shovel dirt on the heads of their closest competition in the wild card race as the final month of the season begins.

While Trevor Bauer’s fractured fibula will cost the Indians a vital part of their rotation headed into September, Leonys Martin's bacterial infection scare (which resulted in Martin being lost for the season) is also a setback. Yet, the Indians continue to distance themselves in the AL Central. The Tribe is en route to a third straight division championship for the first time since 1997 when they went to Game 7 of the World Series.

The Braves have bounced back admirably following a four-game sweep at the hands of Rockies, roaring back to the top of the AL East over the past week. Pitching led the way, as they allowed six runs throughout the week. It was a stretch that featured the debut  of yet another 20-year-old on the precocious Atlanta roster, with Bryse Wilson becoming the third Braves pitcher to be just shy of the drinking age.

Saving their best for last? A late season surge has hoisted the Cardinals atop the NL Wild Card race and within shouting range of the Cubs for outright control of the NL Central. Their 16-5 August record is the best in baseball, with four of those losses coming by one run. The Cards have now won nine straight series and have gone 7-2 against their closest wild card competition in the Brewers, Dodgers and Rockies over the last 10 days.

With the Dodgers and Rockies reeling at the hands of the Cardinals of late, the Diamondbacks have continued to tighten their grip atop the NL West. The D’Backs have picked up victories in seven of their last 10 games in a favorable stint against the Rangers and Padres, as well as the struggling Mariners and free-falling Angels. Along the way, David Peralta has remained one of the hottest hitters in the game, owning a .395 average and 1.246 OPS in August with nine home runs.

After stumbling a few weeks ago, the Brewers righted their course over the last week against the lower rungs of the NL Central, taking four of six from the Pirates and Reds. They have not traveled outside of their home turf division since Aug.14, going 6-5 in the process. It is a continuation of the treading of in-division waters for Milwaukee, who are just 25-30 against the NL Central.

Although Robinson Cano may not be able to help the Mariners if they get over the hill into the postseason, he has done his part since coming back from suspension to help them get there. The veteran has four multihit games since returning on Aug. 14, while making the transition to first base (and occasionally third base) in the process.

August has been a turnaround month for the Rockies, who willed their way back into a three-way race for supremacy in the West. While Nolan Arenado has been his usual MVP-caliber self and even old franchise favorite Matt Holliday has made noise amid an unexpected return to Coors, it has been Rockies pitching that has been the driving force. German Marquez and Kyle Freeland have combined to go 10-2 with a 1.10 WHIP in August.

The return of Kenley Jansen left much to be desired, as he blew a save and took two losses on consecutive nights against the Cardinals. But while the bullpen continues to sort itself out, the club brought its bats to a weekend stint against the Padres, banging out 23 runs to hold onto their invite to the wide-open postseason party — for the time being.

For the second time this year, the Rays went on a phenomenally unforeseen run against one of the AL’s best, extending their current win streak to eight after a weekend sweep of the Red Sox. The plucky but effective Rays are firmly outside of the postseason picture in the AL but have enough fight in them to become a team to avoid down the stretch for Yankees, A’s and Indians, who have a combined 10 more dates with Tampa left.

The Phillies picked a bad time to lose their mojo, dropping six of eight against a collection of the year’s most disappointing clubs. Struggles with the Mets, Nationals and Blue Jays dropped Philly three games back of the Braves. Luckily, the Phils' next six games are well-timed dates at Citizens Bank Park, where they have the second-most home wins on the year with 41.

The Pirates really are baseball’s equator this year: not good enough to keep up with the league’s best for long, but good enough to stick out against the lesser-thans. The Chris Archer experiment has had the reverse effect so far, as he has been horrific in his new home. The righty has yet to make it past the fifth inning with the Bucs and owns a 6.45 ERA in five starts.

While the Nats fire sale was delayed and did not go to as drastic of an extent as it could have (as Bryce Harper ultimately did not became a Dodger), the white flag was definitively waved last week when Daniel Murphy and Matt Adams packed their bags. And how did the Nats react to their latest wake-up call? They took three shutouts on the chin — in a row — before dishing out a 15-0 blanking of the Mets on Sunday. In other words, it was the most typical and definitive of all weeks for the club.

Mike Trout made his first appearance since Aug. 1 and of course promptly picked up where he left off, homering in his first game back from the DL. Unfortunately, even he couldn’t put the brakes on the slide the club is stuck in, which has reached a season-worse six games. Not much reprieve looks to be on the horizon either, as the Rockies and Astros await to finish out the month.

Kendrys Morales embarked upon a one-man warpath last week, homering in seven straight games and setting a new Blue Jays record in the process. The power surge went to good measure as well, helping to catapult the Jays to a season-best, five-game win streak.

Buster Posey’s season came to an end on Monday, when the franchise backstop headed in for hip surgery. But in a fashion true to the gamer that he is, Posey did not go quietly into the night. He scored a run and drove in another in his final game of the season Saturday, although the Giants came up just short (yet again), falling 7-6 to the Rangers.

While the original plans for the Twins went horribly wrong this year, perhaps some of the returns they received during the fire sale can provide some solace down the stretch. Tyler Austin, who came back from the Yankees for Lance Lynn, has six home runs in his first 12 games, while Logan Forsythe has completely reinvented himself since switching leagues, delivering a full 1.2 win difference (0.8 from -0.6).

Although they are buried at the bottom of the AL West, the Rangers have beaten some impressive teams in August en route to their first winning month of the season. They downed the Yankees, Mariners, Diamondbacks and A’s in the month, after sweeping the Astros at the end of July. The second half has been much kinder than the first in Arlington.

Maybe the most representative loss of the year for the 2018 Mets came last week, when Dominic Smith and Amed Rosario collided in the 13 ^th inning to allow the eventual winning run to score. On the bright side, the Mets have won three consecutive series for the first time since April, so some face has been saved of late.

Remember that thing about how tough the NL Central has been on the Brewers? Well, try being the Reds, who are nearly 20 games south of .500 against the Cubs, Cardinals, Brewers and Pirates but are nearly .500 against teams out of the division. Trading places anybody?

After a few weeks of being roadkill, the scrappy Marlins are back in full effect! Over the last week, they beat the Nationals 12-1, the Yankees 9-3 and shut out the Braves. That’s pretty good cooking considering only J.T. Realmuto and Starlin Castro own averages north of .280.

Kopech-mania is running wild, brother! Highly touted top prospect fireballer Michael Kopech has delivered as promised so far since being promoted to the big club last week. In his first two MLB outings, he has averaged a strikeout per inning and has shown that the nastiness of his fastball and breaking ball carried over with ease.

Simply put, there is no salvation on the horizon for the Tigers who are fish out of water wherever they go. Coming out of a torturous time hosting the city of Chicago, going 2-6 against the Cubs and White Sox, they go on the road where their 19 wins away from Comerica are the fewest in baseball.

The continued bottoming out of the Padres has picked up the type of pace that Kal-El’s rocket ship had as it descended upon Smallville. At one time in these very rankings, the Padres were lauded as baseball’s "best last place team." But since July 1, they have won as many games total as the Rays have over the last week.

Last week, the Royals dipped to 52 games south of .500 after losing to the Rays, officially marking a new franchise-low record in the process. When they host the Orioles next week, it will be a series that will see two teams on pace to fly past 200 combined losses on the year pitted against each other in the World Series of struggle.

Deciding who is worse between the Royals and Orioles has degraded into simply who has put on the worse showing more recently. Although the O’s did break the Blue Jays recent five-game win streak, the more dreadful part of the situation is that it brought an eight-game losing streak of their own to an end. It was their eighth losing skid of five games or more on the year…and more than likely not the last.