MLB Power Rankings - Major League Baseball

Power Rankings: Preseason favorite Red Sox return to No. 1

Week:

ESPN.com

The Boston Red Sox were dubbed the No. 1 team in our preseason Power Rankings. Now they're back, courtesy of a 10-game winning streak that includes a weekend sweep of the rival Yankees.

The Red Sox jumped seven spots in the rankings and barely held off the Los Angeles Dodgers, who remain at No. 2 for the second straight week, and the No. 3 Toronto Blue Jays, who own baseball's best record at 14-6 and lead the Red Sox by a game in the AL East.

Meanwhile, last week's No. 1 team, the Florida Marlins, fell back to Earth. After losing six straight games, the Marlins dropped four spots to No. 5.

The team comments below were written by one of our panelists, Enrique Rojas of ESPNdeportes.com. Meanwhile, you can rank the teams yourself.

Tune into "Baseball Tonight" every Monday on ESPN to see the week's U.S. Army Power Rankings. The Pittsburgh Pirates are the U.S. Army Team of the Week; winning five of six for the week, the surprising Bucs climbed 13 spots to No. 7.

2009 Power Rankings: April 27
	RK (LW)	TEAM	REC	COMMENT
	1 (8)	Red Sox	12-6	The Red Sox have outscored opponents 80-36 during their 10-game win streak.
	2 (2)	Dodgers	13-6	The Dodgers are second in the NL in runs and third in ERA.
	3 (4)	Blue Jays	14-6	The Blue Jays have won their first six series of 2009.
	4 (5)	Cardinals	13-6	Led by Albert Pujols, St. Louis leads the NL in runs scored (115).
	5 (1)	Marlins	11-7	The Marlins have allowed 44 runs during their six-game losing streak.
	6 (9)	Mariners	12-7	The Mariners lead the American League in ERA (3.50).
	7 (20)	Pirates	11-7	The Pirates' pitchers lead the majors in ERA (2.97) and quality starts (12).
	8 (16)	Phillies	9-8	The Phillies swept the Marlins by a combined score of 26-9.
	9 (7)	Tigers	10-8	Armando Galarraga leads the club with a 3-0 record and 1.85 ERA.
	10 (6)	Yankees	9-9	New York's pitching is the worst in MLB with a 6.25 ERA.
	11 (3)	Cubs	9-8	Chicago's starters have 11 quality starts, led by Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden with three each.
	12 (15)	Braves	9-9	Derek Lowe, Javier Vazquez and Jair Jurrjens form a solid trio in the Braves' rotation, but the team's main concern is its offense.
	13 (10)	Padres	10-8	Heath Bell leads MLB relievers with seven saves and has allowed five baserunners in 7 2/3 innings.
	14 (12)	Reds	10-8	At home away from home: The Reds are 7-3 on the road.
	15 (11)	Mets	8-10	Carlos Beltran leads the National League in batting at .406.
	16 (13)	White Sox	9-9	SS Alexei Ramirez (.194 batting average) also had a miserable beginning last year, when he batted .138 in April.
	17 (14)	Royals	9-9	The Royals rank third in the majors in ERA (3.47).
	18 (17)	Rays	7-12	Starting pitching (5.01 ERA) has been an issue for the Rays, who have lost nine of their past 12.
	19 (18)	Twins	9-10	The Twins have allowed more runs than they've scored (103 to 80), but they are 3-0 in one-run games.
	20 (26)	Giants	8-9	The Giants allowed only seven runs during their five-game win streak, which ended Sunday.
$Texas Rangers$	21 (19)	Rangers	8-10	The Rangers lead MLB with 38 home runs and have five players with five or more homers.
	22 (27)	Brewers	8-10	Braden Looper's performance (2-0, 2.21 ERA) is elevating hopes in Milwaukee.
	23 (23)	Angels	7-11	The Angels have shown some life with a 3-3 record in their past six games.
	24 (21)	Athletics	7-10	Matt Holliday is homerless in his first 66 at-bats with Oakland.
	25 (22)	Orioles	9-10	The Orioles have lost seven of 10 after starting 6-3.
	26 (24)	Indians	7-12	Cliff Lee could end up on the trade market if the Tribe don't improve.
	27 (28)	Diamondbacks	7-11	The Diamondbacks' run differential (minus-25) is the worst in MLB.
	28 (25)	Rockies	6-11	The Rockies hold the second-worst NL ERA (5.54).
	29 (29)	Astros	7-12	Only Philadelphia (three) has fewer errors than Houston (five).
	30 (30)	Nationals	4-13	Jordan Zimmermann (2-0, 2.38 ERA) has half the Nationals' wins.