Team Heat Check: San Diego Padres Run Hot, Colorado Rockies Run Cold (MLB)

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: San Diego Padres are rolling, Colorado Rockies are reeling, and the gap between those two feelings is enormous.

The warm end of the table

Start with San Diego Padres. They have won 9 of their last 10, and they have not been sneaking past anyone: the runs margin over that stretch is +27, which breaks down to about 7.1 scored and 4.4 allowed per game. That is the arithmetic of a team winning on merit, not on bounces.

Right behind them sit Tampa Bay Rays, 8-2 over the same kind of stretch and +31 on runs margin, quieter, but pointed the same direction.

Keep Milwaukee Brewers in the conversation too, at 8-2 over their last 10.

The whole league is averaging 4.7 runs a game in this stretch, which makes San Diego Padres outrunning that number by 2.4 per night the loudest stat on the page.

Who's cold

At the bottom of the temperature map sit Colorado Rockies: 1-9 in their last 10, -36 on runs margin. That is about 3.6 a game in the wrong direction, and no lineup shuffle fixes it overnight.

Cincinnati Reds (3-7) share the cold row, for whatever comfort that provides.

In between the extremes it gets crowded, San Francisco Giants at 5-5 and Atlanta Braves at 5-5 are basically sharing a seat, and the next series either way will split them.

The board

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

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, San Diego Padres face Miami Marlins next, so this story gets its next chapter almost immediately.