Do you remember back before this 2025 Major League Baseball season began, when six National League teams topped our preseason power rankings and it seemed inevitable that the NLCS was going to be more entertaining than the World Series?

They’re the hottest team in baseball, but they’re not the best team in the league over the past month. That honor belongs to the Astros, who are 24-8 with a plus-57 run differential since the start of June. Their latest work this weekend in Los Angeles, pulverizing the Dodgers by 23 runs over a three-game sweep, was especially eye-opening.

In 2024, the Dodgers had one of the best records in baseball against teams with a winning record. After Sunday’s 5-1 loss to the Houston Astros, this year’s team is just a game over .500 — 20-19 — against teams over .500. Those are the only kind of teams the Dodgers will face in the playoffs.

Sheehan allows one run over five innings, but Houston pulls away late with three home runs, including back-to-back shots off Tanner Scott from Christian Walker and Yainer Diaz, for a 5-1 win.

Christian Walker, Yainer Diaz and Jose Altuve each homered, Ryan Gusto threw six strong innings, and the Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 on Sunday to complete their first three-game sweep at Dodger Stadium since May 9-11,

Astros manager Joe Espada visited the Dodger Stadium mound with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning on Saturday. His starter, Framber Valdez, had just walked Miguel Rojas with Shohei Ohtani due up,

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