There are six weeks left in the season, and the race for the top seed in the National League is close, with the Milwaukee Brewers, Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers all fighting for the top seed.
The top two seeds will get a bye through the first round. The Braves have series remaining against both teams, but the Dodgers and Brewers are done playing each other. The Brewers claimed the season series on Sunday, and now have the tiebreaker of Los Angeles, winning three out of four against them over the weekend.
Still, the Brewers sit at No. 2 in MLB.com's latest power rankings. After the display the Dodgers put on against the Brewers over the weekend, its shocking to see them still at the top of the rankings.
"Please, please, Brewers fans: We know Milwaukee has the best record in baseball (by two games, actually), and we understand that you are probably mad right now that your team is No. 2 in these Power Rankings despite just winning three out of four at Dodger Stadium," wrote MLB.com on Monday. "Fortunately, home-field advantage is not determined by the MLB.com Power Rankings (for now!), it’s determined by the best record. Which the Brewers have … as well as the tiebreaker with a season series win over the Dodgers, if it happens to come to that."
Perhaps those deciding on the rankings recognize that the Dodgers are simply slumping right now. However, the fashion in which they lost is concerning.
In Game 1, the Dodgers blew a ninth-inning lead, highlighting their bullpen concerns. They won Game 2 with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound. However, in Games 3 and 4, their offense was shut down by Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson.
Meanwhile, the Brewers were able to score enough runs off of Tarik Skubal and All-Star Justin Wrobleski to win the final two games of the series.
Right now, it's not wrong to say the Brewers are playing like the better team and should probably be No. 1 in this week's power rankings. The Dodgers will have a chance to get right this week with series against the Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates. Meanwhile, the Brewers will face the Seattle Mariners and Atlanta Braves.