MLB Power Rankings: Astros streak to the top, Orioles hit rock bottom

Welcome to the seventh edition of theScore's MLB Power Rankings for the 2018 season. Rankings will be published every other Monday throughout the season, with the next installment coming July 2.

1. Houston Astros

Eleven straight wins pushed the defending World Series champions back to the top of these power rankings and bought them some breathing room from the soaring Mariners. Houston has a soft upcoming schedule, too, with six against the Rays and three apiece against the Royals and Blue Jays.

2. New York Yankees

The latest Baby Bomber to show up for New York was 23-year-old Jonathan Loaisiga, who tossed five shutout innings in his MLB debut Friday and received postgame comparisons to none other than Mariano Rivera. Yeah, the Yankees will probably take that.

3. Boston Red Sox

With all the talk about a potential Manny Machado acquisition, Rafael Devers is quietly snapping out of an early-season funk. The 21-year-old is hitting .313/.327/.521 with two home runs and four doubles over his last 12 games.

4. Seattle Mariners

Is this the season Seattle finally ends a 16-year playoff drought? The Mariners have built a comfortable lead in the wild-card race and are neck and neck with the Astros thanks to a remarkable 23-10 record in one-run games.

5. Milwaukee Brewers

Ryan Braun hasn't been a consistent producer for the Brewers as they have soared back into contention, but he did reach a pretty fascinating milestone on the weekend. After stealing a base Saturday, he became the only active player (24th ever) with 300 homers and 200 stolen bases.

6. Chicago Cubs

The loss of Yu Darvish until potentially after the All-Star break hasn't affected the Cubbies thanks to the reemergence of Mike Montgomery, who has pitched better than his high-priced teammate since becoming a full-time starter (1.16 ERA in four outings).

7. Atlanta Braves

Atlanta now leads the NL East by 3 1/2 games over the slumping Nationals. But make no mistake, they hold this lead on their own merits with a top-five rotation and offense. These Braves are not going away anytime soon.

8. Washington Nationals

Is Bryce Harper letting the expectations of a contract year get to him? The five-time All-Star is hitting .146/.241/.208 with one extra-base hit, four walks, and 22 strikeouts over 13 games in June.

9. Arizona Diamondbacks

After a rough finish to the month of May, the D-Backs look right again, winning 11 of 16 games in June so far. Paul Goldschmidt has been a beast at the plate this month, slugging .891 after one of the worst months of his career.

10. Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers' resurgence in June (11-3) is nothing short of miraculous with how perpetually injured the starting rotation has been. If they hit the home stretch closer to full strength, look out.

11. Cleveland Indians

The AL Central is the Indians' for the taking, but they've struggled to achieve any kind of separation due to mediocre play. The bullpen has been a major letdown (5.38 ERA) after being so strong in recent years.

12. Los Angeles Angels

After an enormous offseason, it might be another year of wasting Mike Trout's talent in Los Angeles. Despite Trout accruing 6.1 WAR already (1.5 more than the next highest player), the Angels are eight games back of a playoff spot and have Shohei Ohtani and Garrett Richards on the DL.

13. St. Louis Cardinals

The injury-riddled Cardinals are slowly falling back of the pace in the NL Central, and it doesn't help that they've lost series to the Marlins and Padres this month while narrowly avoiding a sweep to the Cubs. Injuries can only mask problems for so long.

14. Philadelphia Phillies

It's all in the helmet. Since coming back with new protective headgear after fracturing his jaw, Rhys Hoskins is hitting .333/.400/.800 with four homers and 11 RBIs, helping keep the Phillies in the NL East race in the process.

15. Oakland Athletics

Oakland took a series from the reeling Angels this weekend, and are now within spitting distance of third place. With a light schedule coming up over the next few weeks, this could be Athletics' best chance to make some real headway in a tough division.

16. Colorado Rockies

Rockies GM Jeff Bridich called out his ace Jon Gray for his inconsistent performance. He could easily have been speaking to the entire team, though, as the Rockies are just 4-11 in June with a minus-27 run differential.

17. Detroit Tigers

Don't look now, but the rebuilding Tigers, sans Miguel Cabrera, are only a game below .500 and 2 1/2 out of first place in the AL Central. It's quite unlikely the Tigers can keep pace with Cleveland the rest of the way, but no matter - this season is already a win in Detroit.

18. Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates' surprising start seems to be running out of steam. They did crawl back to .500 on Saturday with a three-game winning streak, but they're fourth in the Central and are almost certainly going to be sellers at the trade deadline.

19. San Francisco Giants

Since making his season debut on June 5, Madison Bumgarner has been so-so for the Giants, but who needs him when you have Chris Stratton, Derek Holland, and the son of Ivan Rodriguez pitching well. This was surely not the rotation the Giants envisioned at the start of the year.

20. Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays have an ace to build around and it's not Chris Archer. Blake Snell has established himself as one of the top left-hander's in the game, posting a 2.58 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, and 97 strikeouts in 87 1/3 innings.

21. Toronto Blue Jays

Finally some good news for the Blue Jays, as some of their key trade chips are playing well. J.A. Happ owns a 1.91 ERA over his last six outings, while Marco Estrada has put a poor start behind him, allowing just three runs over his last 18 2/3 innings. Both impending free agents will likely be on the move.

22. Minnesota Twins

Miguel Sano, an All-Star last July, found himself banished to Single-A this past week. His individual season kind of mirrors that of his team, as the Twins have fallen from surprise wild-card entrant to sitting below .500 in the worst division in the majors.

23. San Diego Padres

Aside from Eric Hosmer, there aren't a lot of household names on the Padres, but this team has been decent. Freddy Galvis, Manuel Margot, and Cory Spangenberg have all posted an OPS of around .900 over the past week and their bullpen is one of the league's best (3.18 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, .224 opp AVG).

24. New York Mets

It's hard to believe the Mets started the season 17-9 and led the NL East for almost all of April. It's been a rough June in Queens, though, with the Mets going 3-11 while being outscored 30-54 so far.

25. Texas Rangers

Bartolo Colon needs two more wins to tie Dennis Martinez's record for a Latin pitcher, but it might not come. The 45-year-old appears to be running out of steam, posting a 12.71 ERA over three starts this month, with opponents hitting .411 and six home runs off him.

26. Cincinnati Reds

The Reds have finally fallen behind the Marlins for the worst record in the National League. But not to fear, Cincinnati: your team still has the lower run differential, mostly thanks to Joey Votto and trade-deadline chip Scooter Gennett.

27. Miami Marlins

At the outset of the season, the Marlins appeared to be the hands-down favorite to post the worst record in baseball, but that's not the case so far - they're actually better than four other teams! It's a small success, but hey, you need to celebrate those, right?

28. Chicago White Sox

In a rebuilding season, it's all about looking for the silver lining. With back-to-back losses to the Tigers to start the weekend, the White Sox dropped a series for the first time this month. They won series against the Brewers and Red Sox while splitting four-game sets against the Twins and Indians.

29. Kansas City Royals

Kansas City has lost 12 of its last 13 games, owns a league-worst run differential of minus-136, and saw two players get tossed for arguing a replay review on Sunday. Lucky for the Royals, manager Ned Yost doesn't look at the standings.

30. Baltimore Orioles

Things have officially hit rock bottom in Baltimore. The Orioles have dropped nine of their last 10 at home, their highest-paid player, Chris Davis, has been benched since June 11, and general manager Dan Duquette might not be employed come the non-waiver deadline.

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)