MLB Heat Check, Kansas City Royals 9-1 in Their Last 10

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

Who's hot

Kansas City Royals own the league's best recent ledger at 9-1, and the +31 runs margin underneath it says the record is earned. Per game the numbers read 5.9 for and 2.8 against, a gap that does not happen by accident across 10 games.

The chase belongs to Cleveland Guardians, who have gone 8-2 with a +25 margin of their own.

And do not sleep on Philadelphia Phillies, quietly 8-2 across their last 10.

For scale, the league as a whole is averaging 4.3 runs a game over this window, Kansas City Royals are clearing that bar by 1.6 a night all on their own.

Who's cold

Then there is Colorado Rockies. A 2-8 stretch is ugly on its own; pair it with a -21 runs margin and it stops looking like bad luck. They are being outscored by about 2.1 runs a game, and no scheduling quirk explains that away.

Detroit Tigers are not far behind on the misery index at 2-8.

The middle of the table is where the real congestion lives: Texas Rangers (5-5) and Houston Astros (5-5) are separated by almost nothing, and one good weekend reshuffles the whole neighborhood.

The board

Here is the warm half of the form table, last ten games for every club:

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.

The schedule cooperates, too, Kansas City Royals face Cleveland Guardians next, so this story gets its next chapter almost immediately.