MLB Heat Check: Boston Red Sox Are Scorching (9-1 Last 10)

Every MLB season has a week when the temperature map redraws itself, and this feels like one of them. Boston Red Sox have become the team nobody wants to see next on the schedule, while Oakland Athletics are hunting for anything that resembles a good night.

The warm end of the table

Boston Red Sox own the league's best recent ledger at 9-1, and the +38 runs margin underneath it says the record is earned. Per game the numbers read 7.5 for and 3.7 against, a gap that does not happen by accident across 10 games.

The chase belongs to Atlanta Braves, who have gone 8-2 with a +24 margin of their own.

Keep Tampa Bay Rays in the conversation too, at 8-2 over their last 10.

The whole league is averaging 4.2 runs a game in this stretch, which makes Boston Red Sox outrunning that number by 3.3 per night the loudest stat on the page.

Who's cold

Oakland Athletics are the cold front. They have gone 1-9 over their last 10, and the -42 margin underneath means the losses have not even been close, roughly 4.2 runs a game the wrong way.

Seattle Mariners are not far behind on the misery index at 3-7.

In between the extremes it gets crowded, New York Mets at 5-5 and New York Yankees at 5-5 are basically sharing a seat, and the next series either way will split them.

At a glance

The top of the ledger, at a glance:

Worth remembering

Records fib a little and runs margins fib less. When the two columns disagree about a team, trust the margin, it is the slower liar.

The schedule cooperates, too, Boston Red Sox face Toronto Blue Jays next, so this story gets its next chapter almost immediately.