MLB Power Rankings: Mets, Yankees surge into contention

With just three weeks left in the season, the Mets and Yankees are making an Empire State-sized surge.

The long-shot New York teams continued their improbable climb up the standings over the last seven days, each riding timely win streaks to jump four spots in our rankings and back into the postseason discussion. For the Yankees, their gains came partially at the expense of another wild-card hopeful, the Houston Astros, who dropped four of their last five games to fall four places in this week's ranks.

1. Chicago Cubs

Just how good is the Cubs' pitching staff? Well, they've limited their opponents to two runs or less in four of their last six games and Jake Arrieta has been their fourth-best starter since the All-Star break.

2. Texas Rangers

Despite boasting a considerable division lead, the Rangers have to be a tad unsettled by Cole Hamels, who owns an 11.25 ERA over his last three starts, allowing 18 hits while issuing 11 walks in 12 innings over that span.

3. Washington Nationals

Though their advantage atop the NL East appears insurmountable, the Nationals sans Stephen Strasburg aren't nearly as fearsome, what with Reynaldo Lopez, A.J. Cole, and Lucas Giolito owning a combined 5.22 ERA.

4. Cleveland Indians

Francisco Lindor continues to deliver for the first-place Indians who are 7-3 over their last 10, as the 22-year-old shortstop is hitting .389/.433/.500 with four doubles over the last two weeks.

5. Boston Red Sox

Much to the chagrin of the other three contenders in the AL East, Boston's pitching staff has really figured it out. Winners in six of their last nine, the Red Sox have allowed three runs or less in seven of their last eight games.

6. Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers, with a 86 percent chance of winning their division, did the impossible this weekend, not by removing Rich Hill with a perfect-game bid in tact, but by losing a game started by Clayton Kershaw. That probably won't happen again.

7. Toronto Blue Jays

Toronto's offense sure picked a bad time for a nap which has cost the club its place atop the AL East. Since the calendar flipped to September, the Blue Jays own the seventh-worst OPS in baseball (.642).

8. Detroit Tigers

Better late than never. After hitting just .228 with 13 home runs through Aug. 20, Justin Upton has seven homers with a 1.040 OPS in his last 18 games and leads the AL in win probability added (0.92) in September.

9. New York Yankees

Hey, look, the Baby Bombers have surged into both the wild card and AL East races. One big reason for this: Masahiro Tanaka, who owns a 2.73 ERA and 52 strikeouts since the trade deadline sell-off.

10. Baltimore Orioles

The Orioles are going to need their offense to carry the load in their upcoming three-game set in Boston, as Wade Miley and Dylan Bundy - Tuesday's and Wednesday's scheduled starters - have combined for a 6.71 ERA over their last 11 starts.

11. San Francisco Giants

You have to score runs to win - an unfortunate reality for the Giants, who have scored fewer times over the last month than all but six teams (really bad ones, too, for the most part). Main culprits? Buster Posey (98 wRC+) and Brandon Crawford (85).

12. New York Mets

The Mets are pushing hard for a wild-card berth, and they could get some of their injured players back shortly. Everything's looking up in Queens for the moment.

13. St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals' bats woke up this week to help push the Pirates aside but could not prevent the Mets from leapfrogging them in the wild-card standings. Now comes the real test: Three with the Cubs, then a potential wild-card game preview in San Francisco.

14. Seattle Mariners

Taking three of four from Texas kept the Mariners in the playoff race. Now it's time for King Felix and the other big names in Seattle to push this team over the hump - and there's no time left to waste.

15. Houston Astros

Point to injuries and a tough schedule this week if you must, but Jose Altuve's .200 average this month is a huge reason why the Astros were passed by the Yankees in the wild-card chase.

16. Kansas City Royals

Lorenzo Cain's injury could finally be the death knell for the defending champions, who've hung around despite a minus-6 run differential that's the worst among contending teams still above .500.

17. Miami Marlins

Now that the club is under .500 and five games back of a playoff spot, the talk in Miami has moved to possibly shutting down Jose Fernandez. It was a real nice midseason run, though.

18. Pittsburgh Pirates

One bright spot has emerged from the Pirates' collapse in the form of Jameson Taillon, who's finally flashing his potential and has allowed just three runs in two excellent September starts.

19. Colorado Rockies

When was the last time two Rockies pitchers had sub-4.00 ERAs in the same season? Tyler Chatwood and Tyler Anderson are doing that right now, and it's helped keep the Rockies close enough to cause trouble in the wild-card race.

20. Chicago White Sox

Playing out the string hasn't affected Jose Abreu, who owns a 1.160 OPS this month. It's too bad his September excellence will be wasted once again thanks to another mediocre White Sox team.

21. Los Angeles Angels

The concerns in Anaheim this week lie off the field, with the health of Matt Shoemaker after he was hit in the head by a line drive. Shoemaker was released from hospital on Sunday afternoon.

22. Milwaukee Brewers

The Brewers have struck out 1,354 times this season. Their hitters are averaging over nine strikeouts a game. The all-time record for strikeouts in a season by one team is 1,535. Can they avoid infamy?

23. Tampa Bay Rays

Tampa Bay hasn't been great against AL East opponents not named the Blue Jays, as evidenced by a 2-5 week against the Orioles and Yankees.

24. Philadelphia Phillies

The Phillies have scored 28 runs this month, second-lowest in all of baseball. It's going to be a slow finish in Philadelphia.

25. Cincinnati Reds

Credit needs to be given to Joey Votto for wanting to stick out the Reds' rebuild, because the team around him isn't very good. He's doing his part to turn things around, though, hitting .418/.509/.654 in the second half of the season.

26. San Diego Padres

Wil Myers, perhaps the lone bright spot of the Padres' season, has been awful of late. He owns a .664 OPS this month and has been worth just 0.2 WAR since serving as the team's lone All-Star.

27. Oakland Athletics

Billy Butler's tenure in green and gold ended with his unceremonious release on Sunday. The notoriously cost-conscious Athletics choosing to eat the over $11-million left on his deal is a sign things aren't well in the East Bay.

28. Arizona Diamondbacks

The D-Backs set a franchise record by using 26 players in Saturday's 12-inning marathon - and none of those 26 players could find a way to help the D-Backs win.

29. Atlanta Braves

The Braves own a .195 average with the bases loaded this season. That's tied for the second-worst mark in franchise history; only the 1985 team, who hit .165 with the sacks full en route to 96 losses, did worse.

30. Minnesota Twins

The Twins gave 27-year-old James Beresford a September call-up after 1,070 minor-league games, and he got his first two big-league hits over the weekend. It's a nice feel-good story to cap an otherwise forgettable season in Minnesota.

*The composite rankings were compiled by theScore MLB editors Jonah Birenbaum, Lucas Casaletto, Simon Sharkey-Gotlieb, Jonathan Soveta, and Dan Toman.