Milwaukee Brewers’ Christian Yelich singles during the fifth inning against the Washington Nationals, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025, in Washington. The Brewers have owned at least a share of the best record in baseball since July 21.
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Seranthony Domínguez works against the Kansas City Royals during first-inning baseball game action in Toronto, Sunday Aug. 3, 2025.
Chicago Cubs' Justin Turner, right, celebrates with Michael Busch, left, after hitting the winning two-run home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles in Chicago, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025.
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Seranthony Domínguez works against the Kansas City Royals during first-inning baseball game action in Toronto, Sunday Aug. 3, 2025.
Chris Young - The Canadian Press
Chicago Cubs' Justin Turner, right, celebrates with Michael Busch, left, after hitting the winning two-run home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles in Chicago, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025.
Milwaukee Brewers’ Christian Yelich singles during the fifth inning against the Washington Nationals, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025, in Washington. The Brewers have owned at least a share of the best record in baseball since July 21.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The 2025 regular season was supposed to be about Dodger dominance.
Instead, the race for baseball’s best record has turned into a free for all.
If there were any concerns about a Los Angeles behemoth running roughshod over the sport, that hasn’t materialized so far. In fact, eight different teams have spent the past three months passing baseball’s best record around like a hot potato.
The race for the top record in the major leagues is in many ways symbolic. Home field advantage in the postseason isn’t quite the prize it is in the NFL or NBA, and there’s no Presidents’ Trophy given for regular-season excellence like in the NHL. But the number of teams that have taken a turn at the top is noteworthy. Since May 1, the Dodgers, Tigers, Padres, Mets, Phillies, Cubs, Brewers and Blue Jays have all held the best record at some point.
Five of those teams have held the top spot in an even more recent span — since July 1.
Since the American League and National League began expanding significantly in 1961, this is only the fifth time at least eight teams have held (or tied for) the best record in baseball through games of May 1 or later, according to Sportrader. One of those seasons was 2020, when the whole 60-game schedule was after that date. The others were 1963 (eight teams), 1982 (eight) and 2021 (nine).
The largest lead any team has been able to open on the rest of the majors — all season — is when Detroit was three games up for a few days shortly before the All-Star break.
Here are the teams (or pairs of teams) that have led the major league standings at the end of each day since the start of May.
May 1-7: Dodgers; May 8-9: Dodgers and Tigers; May 10: Padres; May 11-12: Dodgers; May 13: Mets and Tigers; May 14: Tigers;; May 15: Dodgers and Tigers; May 16-22: Tigers; May 23-27: Phillies; May 28-June 10: Tigers; June 11-12: Mets; June 13-24: Tigers; June 25-26: Dodgers and Tigers; June 27: Dodgers; June 28-30: Dodgers and Tigers; July 1-4: Dodgers; July 5: Dodgers and Tigers; July 6-18: Tigers; July 19: Cubs; July20: Tigers; July 21: Brewers; July 22: Brewers and Cubs; July 23-24: Brewers; July 25-27: Blue Jays; July 28-Aug. 3: Brewers
Trivia time
Seven of baseball’s current franchises have never finished with game’s best regular-season record. Who are they?
LA’s story
For the first few weeks of the season, it looked like the Dodgers might indeed be on their way to well over 100 wins. The defending champs — who had added pitchers Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki in the offseason — won their first eight games, but since then Los Angeles . In early June, the Dodgers had 14 pitchers on the injured list, and although they’re in first place in their division, their current winning percentage of .580 would be their worst since 2018 if that’s where they finish the season.
Line of the week
Pittsburgh’s Liover Peguero hit three home runs Saturday in to Colorado. It was a tough defeat to swallow for the Pirates, who actually gave ace Paul Skenes some run support, only for him to allow four runs in five-plus innings.
Comeback of the week
On the topic of tough losses to swallow, the Pirates also fell to the Rockies on Friday night — after scoring nine runs in the top of the first. Pittsburgh led 16-10 before allowing two in the eighth and five in the bottom of the ninth. Brenton Doyle hit a two-run homer for Colorado, which had a win probability of 0.5% in the eighth .
The Rockies are the only team this season to win after falling nine runs behind, and they continue to make progress in their effort to avoid matching or breaking the modern record for losses set by the Chicago White Sox last year. Colorado went 3-3 this week and is now 30-81 on the season. The White Sox went 41-121
Trivia answer
Unsurprisingly, the seven are among the majors’ younger franchises — the Rays, Diamondbacks, Marlins, Rockies, Blue Jays, Padres and Rangers.
Of the teams that have finished with the best record in baseball, the one with the longest current drought is the Twins, who last did so in 1965.
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