MLB Heat Check, San Diego Padres 9-1 in Their Last 10

Every MLB season has a week when the temperature map redraws itself, and this feels like one of them. San Diego Padres have become the team nobody wants to see next on the schedule, while Colorado Rockies are hunting for anything that resembles a good night.

The warm end of the table

Nobody is playing better than San Diego Padres right now. The record says 9-1 over their last 10; the runs column says even more, a +27 margin that works out to 7.3 scored and 4.6 allowed a night.

Milwaukee Brewers are the closest thing to company at 8-2, with a +30 runs margin that says the record is no fluke.

Tampa Bay Rays (8-2) round out the warm end of the ledger.

For scale, the league as a whole is averaging 4.7 runs a game over this window, San Diego Padres are clearing that bar by 2.6 a night all on their own.

The deep freeze

Colorado Rockies are the cold front. They have gone 2-8 over their last 10, and the -29 margin underneath means the losses have not even been close, roughly 2.9 runs a game the wrong way.

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

The middle of the table is where the real congestion lives: Los Angeles Angels (5-5) and Boston Red Sox (4-6) are separated by almost nothing, and one good weekend reshuffles the whole neighborhood.

By the numbers

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

The fine print

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.