MLB Power Rankings - Major League Baseball

Power Rankings: Dodgers hold off Yanks for No. 1

Week:

ESPN.com

Once again, the Los Angeles Dodgers are dead even with another team in the MLB Power Rankings. And once again, it's a team from the powerful American League East.

Yet this time, it's the New York Yankees, not the Boston Red Sox, who are trying to nudge their way into the top spot in the Power Rankings. In the voting of our Power Rankings panel, the Dodgers and the Yankees finished with the same number of overall points, yet the Dodgers won the tiebreaker for the second straight week. They ended up with more first-place votes than the Yankees to earn the No. 1 ranking for a record 11 straight weeks.

The Red Sox fell behind the Yankees, as they have in the AL East, to the No. 3 spot, followed by the Los Angeles Angels and the Philadelphia Phillies to round out the top five. One of our panelists, Enrique Rojas of ESPNDeportes.com, wrote the comments below. Meanwhile, you can rank the teams yourself.

Tune in to "Baseball Tonight" every Monday on ESPN to see the week's U.S. Army Power Rankings. The Atlanta Braves are the U.S. Army Team of the Week because they made the biggest jump in the rankings, moving up four spots to No. 13.

2009 Power Rankings: July 27
	RK (LW)	TEAM	REC	COMMENT
	1 (1)	Dodgers	62-36	The club with the best overall record also is the best in one-run games (20-9).
	2 (3)	Yankees	60-38	The Yankees, who have won 22 of their past 28, will play 19 of their next 26 games away from home.
	3 (2)	Red Sox	57-40	Jason Varitek has thrown out only 13 of 86 base stealers (15 percent).
	4 (5)	Angels	58-39	The Angels have won 12 of their past 14 games.
	5 (4)	Phillies	56-40	The Phillies have won 17 of their past 20 games.
	6 (6)	Rays	54-45	Carlos Pena is hitting .219, but he leads the AL in homers (25) and is among the league leaders in RBIs (64) and runs scored (65).
$Texas Rangers$	7 (10)	Rangers	54-42	The Rangers have won six of seven to stay close to the Angels in the AL West.
	8 (9)	Tigers	52-45	Fernando Rodney is 21-for-21 in save opportunities.
	9 (12)	Cubs	51-45	The Cubs, now leading the NL Central, are on fire, with 10 victories in their past 13 games.
	10 (7)	Cardinals	53-48	Julio Lugo is 8-for-14 (2 triples, 2 doubles, 1 HR) with four runs scored in three games since joining the Cardinals.
	11 (11)	Rockies	54-44	The Rockies, who are 34-12 since June 4, also are the NL wild-card leaders.
	12 (8)	Giants	52-46	The Giants scored 23 runs in their first 10 games (3-7) of the second half of the season.
	13 (17)	Braves	51-48	The Braves are back competing in the NL East with an 8-3 record to start the second half.
	14 (14)	White Sox	51-48	Carlos Quentin is hitting .200 (5-for-25) with no home runs or RBIs in his first seven games since returning from the DL.
	15 (18)	Marlins	51-48	Hanley Ramirez is hitting .427 with runners in scoring position, second best in MLB.
	16 (13)	Mariners	51-47	Ronny Cedeno (.175 BA and .223 OBP) doesn't appear to be the solution for the Mariners at shortstop.
	17 (19)	Astros	50-48	Wandy Rodriguez leads the club in victories (10), ERA (2.72) and K's (117).
	18 (15)	Brewers	49-49	The Brewers are 7-14 in July and falling behind in the NL Central.
	19 (16)	Twins	49-50	Joe Mauer has more than one hit in four of his past six games to improve his average to .366.
	20 (20)	Blue Jays	48-51	The Blue Jays have lost seven of their past eight series.
	21 (21)	Mets	46-51	David Wright, who has only six home runs, had at least 26 in each of his past four seasons.
	22 (22)	Reds	44-53	The Reds have lost eight straight away games.
	23 (23)	Orioles	42-55	The Orioles are 1-16 on the road against their divisional rivals.
	24 (24)	Pirates	43-55	The Pirates have been shut out a major league-worst 11 times.
	25 (25)	Diamondbacks	43-56	Miguel Montero is hitting .380 in July to improve his batting average by 40 points (.295).
	26 (28)	Indians	41-58	Cliff Lee (7-9, 3.14 ERA) is 3-0 with a 1.44 ERA in his past three outings.
	27 (27)	Athletics	41-56	The Athletics have lost 17 of their past 27 games.
	28 (26)	Royals	38-59	The Royals are 1-11 in their past 12 games.
	29 (29)	Padres	38-61	Adrian Gonzalez has played in 306 consecutive games, a club record and the best current streak in the majors.
	30 (30)	Nationals	30-68	The Nationals are 4-7 since Jim Riggleman took the reins as manager.