Team Heat Check: Philadelphia Phillies Run Hot, Athletics Run Cold (MLB)

Ten games is not a season, but it is a mood, and moods decide a lot of games. The current mood around MLB: Philadelphia Phillies keep winning, Athletics keep losing, and everybody else lives somewhere in the weather between.

Who's hot

Philadelphia Phillies own the league's best recent ledger at 8-2, and the +16 runs margin underneath it says the record is earned. Per game the numbers read 5.3 for and 3.7 against, a gap that does not happen by accident across 10 games.

Right behind them sit San Diego Padres, 7-3 over the same kind of stretch and +17 on runs margin, quieter, but pointed the same direction.

Keep Kansas City Royals in the conversation too, at 7-3 over their last 10.

For scale, the league as a whole is averaging 4.3 runs a game over this window, Philadelphia Phillies are clearing that bar by 1.0 a night all on their own.

The deep freeze

Athletics are the cold front. They have gone 2-8 over their last 10, and the -23 margin underneath means the losses have not even been close, roughly 2.3 runs a game the wrong way.

Washington Nationals are not far behind on the misery index at 2-8.

The middle of the table is where the real congestion lives: Arizona Diamondbacks (5-5) and Baltimore Orioles (5-5) are separated by almost nothing, and one good weekend reshuffles the whole neighborhood.

By the numbers

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

One more thing

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.

Next up on the slate: Philadelphia Phillies against St. Louis Cardinals. Check back after that one goes final.