Remember when everyone was freaking out about the Phillies? All it took was one hot week to turn all that back around. After winning four in a row – before dropping the series finale against the Nationals on Sunday – the Phillies have fought all the way back to a seven-game division lead, the best record in the National League and, most importantly, the top spot in our Power Rankings. There probably was never much reason to worry about the Phillies.

These rankings, as always, are compiled from rankings from MLB.com contributors whose names you can find at the bottom of this (and every) piece, but the words are mine. If you dislike the rankings, yell at all of us. But if you dislike the words, feel free to yell at me.

• MLB standings

1. Phillies (previously: 2).
Season high: 1 | Season low: 8
Any season as great as the one the Phillies are having needs to have some folk-hero moments, and they sure got one on Thursday night when 29-year-old rookie Weston Wilson hit for the 10th cycle in Phillies history. Wilson, who has 2,865 at-bats in the Minors, called it “a testament to perseverance.” We call it one of those great baseball stories.

2. Yankees (previously: 3).
Season high: 1 | Season low: 7
Aaron Judge has a 277 OPS+ in the second half, an absolutely ridiculous number that would be the highest in the American League since World War II if it happened for a whole season. How do I know that? Because Judge’s full season OPS+ is 222, which would be the second highest in the AL since World War II. The best OPS+ since World War II was 233 in 1957, posted by Ted Williams, who certainly knew precisely when World War II was.

3. Orioles (previously: 1).
Season high: 1 | Season low: 5
Gunnar Henderson, after another homer on Sunday, now has four homers in his last five games, but the real excitement Sunday was Albert Suárez, who threw six more shutout innings, extending his scoreless streak to 17 2/3 innings. Who said the Orioles had a starting pitching issue?

4. Dodgers (previously: 4).
Season high: 1 | Season low: 6
Since an insider told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale that the Dodgers were “privately concerned” about Clayton Kershaw, he has given up two runs in 11 2/3 innings in two starts, both Dodgers wins. It is so, so nice to see Kershaw being something resembling Kershaw again. The Dodgers are surely not concerned anymore, privately or otherwise.

5. Guardians (previously: 6).
Season high: 2 | Season low: 21
The Guardians are causing everybody whiplash. Since July 10, they’ve:

• Lost seven of nine.
• Won eight of 10
• Lost seven straight.
• Won five straight.
• Lost three straight.

6. Brewers (previously: 6).
Season high: 5 | Season low: 19
The Brewers are now 20 games over .500 for the first time all year. This team, in case you forgot, lost its manager, Craig Counsell, and its ace, Corbin Burnes, and has been ravaged by injuries, most painfully to Christian Yelich, who is now out for the year. And remember last year’s 92-win NL Central-winning team, the one that had all those players? This one is clearly better.

7. Twins (previously: 8).
Season high: 7 | Season low: 23
Remember when everyone was worried about the Twins? The great Athletic writer Aaron Gleeman pointed out this week that “the Twins have followed four bad weeks by playing at a 100-win pace for four months.” We should stop thinking they’re in the muddle with everyone else and start thinking this is one of the absolute best teams in baseball.

8. Padres (previously: 7).
Season high: 7 | Season low: 21
If Padres fans are wondering if it has ever been as good as it is right now, the answer may well be “no.” Had the Padres beaten the Rockies on Sunday, they would have won their ninth consecutive series, which would have been the most series they’ve won in a row in franchise history. Alas, they’re now still tied at eight, which they did most recently in 2007. They’re still only three games behind the Dodgers in the NL West.

9. Astros (previously: 11).
Season high: 6 | Season low: 26
The Astros reached a season-high 11 games over .500 with their win on Sunday, and they’ve now won 10 of their last 11. (The only loss in that time was to the White Sox.) And remember, they’re doing all this without Kyle Tucker, who took batting practice over the weekend but still hasn’t started a rehab assignment. Sure looks like he’ll be back for the inevitable playoff appearance, though.

10. Diamondbacks (previously: 9).
Season high: 9 | Season low: 19
The Diamondbacks had won nine straight series, and six games in a row, until they came into the Trop over the weekend and, out of nowhere, got swept. It’s their first three-game losing streak since late June and it came at a very unfortunate time: If they could have kept that win streak going against the Rays all weekend, they’d be within one game of the Dodgers right now.

11. Royals (previously: 9).
Season high: 6 | Season low: 24
How far have the Royals come this season? By completing their sweep over the Reds on Sunday, they earned their eighth series sweep of the season. They had a total of five sweeps combined in 2022 and 2023.

12. Braves (previously: 13).
Season high: 1 | Season low: 13
Have the Braves steadied the ship? The team that was bumped out of Wild Card contention a week ago is back in the driver’s seat for the third spot, with only the Mets within two games of them. We’ll see if they can hang in with all the games they have coming up against the Phillies: Seven of their next 13 games are against their division rivals.

13. Red Sox (previously: 14).
Season high: 11 | Season low: 22
Tyler O’Neill returned from yet another IL stint on Sunday, and if the Red Sox are going to hang around a Wild Card chase that’s in danger of getting away from them, they need O’Neill to get hot again. They’re now 3 1/2 games behind the Royals with a tough week against the Astros and Diamondbacks coming up. O’Neill is having his best season since his fantastic 2021, but the mere 82 games he has played, as always, tells the larger story.

14. Mets (previously: 15).
Season high: 10 | Season low: 25
For a team in the thick of the Wild Card chase, you would have liked a better showing on a six-game homestand against the A’s and the Marlins than the 3-3 split the Mets just got. It is about to get a lot harder for them: Their next three series are against the Orioles, Padres and Diamondbacks (the latter two on the road).

15. Mariners (previously: 12).
Season high: 6 | Season low: 21
The double-digit runs the Mariners exploded for on Sunday must have felt great, because it had been pretty dreary in Seattle over the past week heading into that point. The problem as always was the offense: Before that game, all Mariners not named Julio Rodríguez were 16-for-143 during their five-game losing streak.

16. Giants (previously: 21).
Season high: 12 | Season low: 23
If the Giants want to make a Wild Card run — and there are some frustrated Giants fans maybe running out of patience — they better go on a run right now before it’s too late. Because it’s starting to look like the only thing that’ll come out of this hot Blake Snell run will be the reigning Cy Young exercising his opt-out to go somewhere else.

17. Cardinals (previously: 16).
Season high: 12 | Season low: 27
The ship is sinking in St. Louis. The team is now two games under .500, 11 games out of first place in the NL Central and won’t face a team with a losing record until Sept. 10 when they face the Reds, the team that just swept them. There are big questions looming for this team in the offseason.

18. Cubs (previously: 18).
Season high: 8 | Season low: 22
The Cubs continue to tantalize their fans, with a hot streak coming right after most fans had made their peace with this just not being their year. As tends to be the case with disappointing teams, much of its frustration has come as a result of one-run games: They’ve played in 45 one-run games this year and only won 19 of them.

19. Rays (previously: 20).
Season high: 9 | Season low: 24
Congratulations to the Rays for topping MLB Pipeline’s farm system rankings this week, back at No. 1 for the first time since early 2021. That wasn’t very long ago, obviously, and the Rays have stayed in the top 10 since. The fact remains forever true: Tampa Bay always has something brewing down on the farm.

20. Reds (previously: 21).
Season high: 11 | Season low: 25
The Reds’ sweep of the Cardinals this week — which made them look superior to the Cards in every way and made you wonder why this team wasn’t already deep in the Wild Card chase — was followed by a sweep at the hands of the Royals to remind you, oh, yeah, that’s why. With Hunter Greene on the IL now, it’s starting to look like wait ’til next year again for the Reds.

21. Tigers (previously: 24).
Season high: 7 | Season low: 24
You know what would make a huge difference moving forward for the Tigers? If Spencer Torkelson finally turns the corner. He went 2-for-3 in his first game back up from Triple-A Toledo on Saturday: Detroit fans are ready and open and supportive in every way they can be.

22. Rangers (previously: 22).
Season high: 4 | Season low: 23
It sure looks like the Rangers are out of it, which means, once again, we will not have a repeat World Series champion. The last team to win two World Series in a row was of course the 1999-2000 Yankees, and thus that streak keeps rolling on.

23. Pirates (previously: 18).
Season high: 9 | Season low: 25
The Pirates won two out of three against the Mariners over the weekend, which put a merciful end to a 10-game losing streak that likely took them out of the playoff chase entirely. Paul Skenes is in line to start Wednesday against the Rangers. You wonder how many more 2024 starts Skenes is going to get after that one. (If he makes that one.)

24. Nationals (previously: 23).
Season high: 20 | Season low: 27
The Nationals won on Sunday to avoid a five-game losing streak, but you can tell they have clearly turned their attention to 2025 and the years beyond that. Had they lost Sunday, it would have been their third losing streak of five games or more since the beginning of July.

25. Blue Jays (previously: 25).
Season high: 8 | Season low: 25
The Jays haven’t been winning a lot of games lately, but there have been some positives, including youngsters Spencer Horwitz and Addison Barger. Another youngster hitting well for the Jays? Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who’s slashing .415/.488/.868 since the All-Star break.

26. A’s (previously: 26).
Season high: 20 | Season low: 30
Sunday was the final A’s-Giants game in Oakland, a rivalry that will forever be known for the 1989 World Series. But all the nostalgia has obscured the fact that the A’s have been better than the Giants, and most teams, for more than a month now. Heading into Sunday, their +29 run differential since July 14 has been the second-best in the AL, behind only the Royals.

27. Angels (previously: 27).
Season high: 24 | Season low: 28
Logan O’Hoppe, despite a recent 0-for-29 skid, is one of those young Angels players that can make you excited for the future. (He had a big homer on Friday to beat the Braves and end the slump.) MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger wrote this week about O’Hoppe’s father, who has been cancer free for two years and whom O’Hoppe celebrated over Players’ Weekend. There haven’t been a lot of happy moments for the Angels this year, but just about everything with O’Hoppe — and his dad — has been a positive.

28. Rockies (previously: 28).
Season high: 27 | Season low: 29
The Rockies retired Todd Helton’s number on Saturday, and he made a strong case that the next Rockie to have his number retired should be Charlie Blackmon. “He deserves to be up there,” Helton said. He is essentially second to Helton in every major category in Colorado history.

29. Marlins (previously: 29).
Season high: 23 | Season low: 30
You know who’s having a quietly nice little year? 2023 Trade Deadline acquisition Jake Burger, who has nine home runs in his past 15 games and leads the Marlins in almost every offensive category, including batting average, runs scored, homers and RBIs.

30. White Sox (previously: 29).
Season high: 28 | Season low: 30
Fun (well, “fun”) trivia question: Which White Sox player has the highest OPS+ on the team (minimum 100 plate appearances)? It’s Andrew Vaughn, who is 16-for-46 over his past 12 games with a 97 OPS+ heading into Sunday. That’s of course not quite average, which is 100, but nevertheless, he has been the best hitter on the team.

Voters: Nathalie Alonso, Paul Casella, Anthony Castrovince, Mark Feinsand, Daniel Feldman, Will Leitch, Travis Miller, Sweeny Murti, Arturo Pardavila, Mike Petriello, Manny Randhawa, Andrew Simon, David Venn.