MLB Heat Check: Atlanta Braves Are Scorching (8-2 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: Atlanta Braves keep winning, Los Angeles Angels keep losing, and everybody else lives somewhere in the weather between.

The warm end of the table

Atlanta Braves own the league's best recent ledger at 8-2, and the +10 runs margin underneath it says the record is earned. Per game the numbers read 4.3 for and 3.3 against, a gap that does not happen by accident across 10 games.

Philadelphia Phillies are the closest thing to company at 7-3, with a +11 runs margin that says the record is no fluke.

Keep Houston Astros in the conversation too, at 7-3 over their last 10.

Who's cold

At the bottom of the temperature map sit Los Angeles Angels: 1-9 in their last 10, -12 on runs margin. That is about 1.2 a game in the wrong direction, and no lineup shuffle fixes it overnight.

They have company at the cold end: Detroit Tigers, 3-7 over the same window.

The middle of the table is where the real congestion lives: Chicago White Sox (5-5) and Arizona Diamondbacks (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:

The fine print

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

The schedule cooperates, too, Atlanta Braves face Philadelphia Phillies next, so this story gets its next chapter almost immediately.