MLB Heat Check, Los Angeles Dodgers 8-2 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: Los Angeles Dodgers keep winning, Kansas City Royals keep losing, and everybody else lives somewhere in the weather between.

Who's hot

Nobody is playing better than Los Angeles Dodgers right now. The record says 8-2 over their last 10; the runs column says even more, a +28 margin that works out to 5.0 scored and 2.2 allowed a night.

Right behind them sit Cleveland Guardians, 8-2 over the same kind of stretch and +21 on runs margin, quieter, but pointed the same direction.

San Diego Padres (8-2) round out the warm end of the ledger.

The whole league is averaging 4.3 runs a game in this stretch, which makes Los Angeles Dodgers outrunning that number by 0.7 per night the loudest stat on the page.

The deep freeze

Kansas City Royals are the cold front. They have gone 2-8 over their last 10, and the -27 margin underneath means the losses have not even been close, roughly 2.7 runs a game the wrong way.

Colorado Rockies are not far behind on the misery index at 2-8.

Do not ignore the middle class, either: Tampa Bay Rays (5-5) and New York Yankees (5-5) sit close enough that a single hot or cold series flips their order.

By the numbers

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

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.

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