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Dodgers take fall in power rankings

For the first time all year, they’re not No. 1 anywhere

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MLB: Los Angeles Dodgers at Los Angeles Angels Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

As if we didn’t already know, the Dodgers have been struggling. They’ve lost 15 of 20 and are in third place in the NL West.

On Monday, the weekly power rankings dropped on most media sites. With the Dodgers playing like one of the worst teams in baseball, it was interesting to see the difference in opinions some sites had in the Dodgers.

Check it out.

The Athletic

This week: 2 | Last week: 1

All it took to knock the Dodgers out of the top spot in our rankings was for them to go 1-5 this week as part of a 4-13 stretch over five consecutive lost series. They plummeted all the way down to No. 2. It’s the first time in the history of any baseball power rankings that the Dodgers are not No. 1.

The reasons for equanimity in the face of what amounts to chaos at Chavez Ravine are plentiful. LA’s plus-32 run differential is still the best in the National League. FanGraphs’ Base Runs, which calculates how many runs you should be scoring and allowing per game based on underlying statistics, still ranks them as the best team in baseball. You could say the Dodgers have taken a tag to the wrong part of the body, and while that hurts like hell in the short term, you can get back on your feet before long.

CBS Sports

This week: 19 | Last week: 2

I just don’t know. That’s a 1-5 week with the only win by the count of 14-11, during which game they had a 13-0 lead and nearly blew it. Since the 13-2 start, the Dodgers are 5-15. My guess is there will be a surge back toward the top soon enough. For now, I see nothing wrong with putting them this low at a snapshot in time. I thought maybe about 15 would work, but the four teams immediately above them represent the last four series the Dodgers have played — and all four beat them.

Sports Illustrated

This week: 6 | Last week: 2

The Dodgers have lost five straight series, tied for their longest streak in the last decade. They’ve gone 5–15 over that span, only better than the Tigers, and hit .217 as a team, tied for last in the NL. Clayton Kershaw, coming off the shortest outing of his career earlier in the week, started Saturday on short rest for the first time ever during the regular season to help out the team’s injury-plagued rotation. The defending champs are 4–10 in one-run games, suffering the most losses in MLB in those contests. Even in blowout wins, they’re getting cranky about their opponents gifting them outs. You can feel the pressure starting to ramp up on the NL West’s third-place team.

MLB.com

This week: 7 | Last week: 1

Dodgers links