Brewers Leave LA with Baseball's Best Record as the AL Turns Into a Scramble
Milwaukee's 6-2 win at Dodger Stadium on Sunday capped a weekend that sharpened every race — and exposed how soft the American League's wild-card floor has become.
With six weeks left in the regular season, the team nobody talks about owns the best record in baseball. The Milwaukee Brewers closed their trip to Los Angeles with a 6-2 win over the Dodgers on Sunday — Jake Bauers fueled the victory — and sit at 77-48, ahead of every other club in the majors, including the Rays (74-49), Braves (74-50) and the Dodgers themselves (74-51).
The comfortable races
Three divisions are drifting toward decided. Milwaukee leads the Cubs by five in the NL Central, even after Chicago, per MLB.com, won 10 of 14 to open August. Atlanta's cushion in the NL East is 7.5 games over Philadelphia, and the Dodgers still hold a seven-game NL West lead over San Diego despite dropping Sunday's finale. In the AL East, Tampa Bay (74-49) leads the Yankees by 5.5 — MLB.com reports the Rays have won 18 of their past 24 while New York has slid amid Aaron Judge's injury.
The messy ones
The AL West is the opposite story. Houston leads it at 63-62 — one game over .500 — and lost 3-2 at home to Seattle on Sunday, keeping Texas within two games. MLB.com credits the Astros' rise to a late-July stretch in which they won 13 of 16, but nobody in this division has run away from mediocrity.
That spills into the wild-card picture. Behind the Yankees and Red Sox (66-58), the current holder of the AL's third spot is Baltimore at 61-63 — two games under .500 — with the Rangers, Tigers, Twins and Guardians all bunched within a game or two, every one of them below break-even. Someone from that scrum will be playing October baseball.
The full live tables and this week's schedule are on Torch at /standings/diamond and /matches/diamond.