They’re the hottest team in baseball, but they’re not the best team in the league over the past month. That honor belongs to the Astros, who are 24-8 with a plus-57 run differential since the start of June. Their latest work this weekend in Los Angeles, pulverizing the Dodgers by 23 runs over a three-game sweep, was especially eye-opening.

Do you remember back before this 2025 Major League Baseball season began, when six National League teams topped our preseason power rankings and it seemed inevitable that the NLCS was going to be more entertaining than the World Series?