The Los Angeles Dodgers entered Wednesday’s game against the Miami Marlins riding a six-game winning streak, looking for their second consecutive series sweep.
The national rankers are taking notice.
For the first time since early April, the Dodgers are the No. 1 team in Newsweek’s latest MLB power rankings, released Wednesday. In climbing back into the top spot, the Dodgers managed to displace the Atlanta Braves, who had been Newsweek’s top team for two consecutive weeks. The Dodgers swept the Braves in a three-game series at Dodger Stadium ending Sunday.
The Dodgers aren’t merely winning, they’re winning big. During the six-game streak, they have managed to outscore opponents by a cumulative score of 42-11. That’s an unsustainably large run differential for a full season, but it speaks to the Dodgers’ dominance on both sides of the ball.
Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani are 1-2 in MLB in Wins Above Replacement. Tyler Glasnow leads MLB in innings, wins, and strikeouts, forming a potent 1-2 with Yoshinobu Yamamoto atop the rotation. Evan Phillips was looking like a capital-C closer before suffering a mild hamstring strain. After some early hiccups, the Dodgers have shifted around their personnel in the field to create one of the game’s best defenses.
Depth has been an issue at times for the Dodgers, but lately that’s been moot. Fans who embraced the World-Series-Or-Bust mantra at the beginning of the year expected nothing less. Still, as the last month has shown, it shouldn’t be taken for granted that the Dodgers look like baseball’s best team to begin both April and May.
