MLB Heat Check, Tampa Bay Rays 9-1 in Their Last 10

Form is the story the standings tell slowly and the last ten games tell fast. Right now the fast version of MLB is easy to summarize: Tampa Bay Rays are rolling, Oakland Athletics are reeling, and the gap between those two feelings is enormous.

Burning up

Nobody is playing better than Tampa Bay Rays right now. The record says 9-1 over their last 10; the runs column says even more, a +30 margin that works out to 7.0 scored and 4.0 allowed a night.

Right behind them sit San Diego Padres, 8-2 over the same kind of stretch and +19 on runs margin, quieter, but pointed the same direction.

Keep Chicago Cubs in the conversation too, at 8-2 over their last 10.

For scale, the league as a whole is averaging 4.3 runs a game over this window, Tampa Bay Rays are clearing that bar by 2.7 a night all on their own.

The deep freeze

At the bottom of the temperature map sit Oakland Athletics: 1-9 in their last 10, -42 on runs margin. That is about 4.2 a game in the wrong direction, and no lineup shuffle fixes it overnight.

They have company at the cold end: Seattle Mariners, 2-8 over the same window.

In between the extremes it gets crowded, Philadelphia Phillies at 5-5 and Los Angeles Dodgers at 5-5 are basically sharing a seat, and the next series either way will split them.

The board

For the fuller picture, the five best recent records in the league:

Worth remembering

As always, watch where record and runs margin tell different stories about the same club. The margin tends to know first.

Next up on the slate: Tampa Bay Rays against Baltimore Orioles. Check back after that one goes final.