Power Rankings hold steady, but Top 5 better beware of this team 

We all had a fun time with the All-Star Game festivities, as we always do. We hope you are enjoying your breather, because break time is almost over: It’s time to get revved up again. In many ways, these are the most pivotal weeks of the season coming up, when teams either buy or sell at the Deadline, when they figure out who they are and where they are going. Every team in baseball is looking at every other team in baseball right now. You best pay attention.

Thus, we slingshot out of All-Star Week with this week’s Power Rankings, with teams jostling for position, setting themselves up for the intense sprint coming up. These rankings don’t look anything at all like what anyone could have reasonably expected when the season began. That is, after all, the fun of it.

Here are this week’s rankings.

Biggest Jump: No surprise here: Once again, it’s the Reds, who leap up a full four spots all the way to No. 7. The Reds are a top 10 team in baseball right now: Soak it in, Reds fans. One can’t help but wonder if the aesthetical pleasure of merely watching the Reds right now has something to do with the jump. When you have a guy like Elly De La Cruz who steals second, third and home on three pitches, well, that’s the sort of thing that makes the baseball world stand up and take notice.

Biggest Drop: The rankings held remarkably steady this week: Both the top six and the bottom 15 all stayed exactly the same. The teams that dropped mostly did so as casualties of the Reds’ rise: The Astros went 4-3 before the break and still fell from No. 9 to No. 10. Same with the Marlins, who actually went 5-2 and fell a spot as well. Nothing you can do about that, kids.

Power Rankings Top 5:

1. Braves 60-29 (last week: 1)
If you weren’t sure whom to vote No. 1 this week, the Braves made a pretty definitive case by winning two out of three vs. Tampa Bay. Even with an ugly 10-4 loss on Sunday, the Braves are on a tear that is putting the rest of baseball to shame. Since May 30, the Braves are 28-6. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s a 137-win pace.

2. Rays 58-35 (last week: 2)
As exciting as the Braves-Rays weekend series was, you can forgive the Rays for not getting too caught up in all the hubbub: Unlike the Braves, they’ve got a serious division race on their hands. With the Orioles simply refusing to lose these days, the Rays need every win they can get to stay atop the AL East, which is why their win Sunday over Atlanta came in so handy. At the break, Tampa Bay -- the team that was the talk of baseball with its incredible start for two months -- only has a two-game lead for first. That four-game series at The Trop against the Orioles from July 20-23 is going to be a gas.

3. Rangers 52-39 (last week: 3)
Speaking of teams whose division leads are starting to fritter away a bit, the Rangers are now only two games up on the hated in-state rival Astros after a 2-5 week that began with a wild 12-11 loss to the defending champs. If the Rangers end up a game or two behind the Astros by the end of the year, they may look back at the week they just had, in which an East Coast road trip against two last-place teams (the Red Sox and the Nationals) ended with two series losses.

4. D-backs 52-39 (last week: 4)
Is it time to worry about the D-backs a little bit? At least, a little? The D-backs did the impossible this week: They gave Mets fans hope. (Hope the Padres would quickly extinguish.) The three losses (all at home) were demoralizing for the D-backs in a different way each night, and that cushion they had in the NL West has suddenly evaporated. The brief injury to Corbin Carroll (who is now back) didn’t help, but it was the pitching -- specifically the starting pitching -- that got them this week. The D-backs have had a dream first half, and the Dodgers have felt off-kilter and injured -- essentially from the get-go. That does not make those two teams any less tied in the standings right now.

5. Orioles 54-35 (last week: 5)
Who said the Orioles couldn’t pitch? After losing the first two games in The Bronx this week, the Orioles started shutting down opposing hitters in dominant fashion, outscoring the Yankees (in the fourth game of the set) and the Twins (in three games in Minneapolis) 38-6. 38-6! That “38” is pretty impressive, to say the least, but if the Orioles are going to go far in October -- a month it sure looks like they’ll be playing plenty of games in -- it’s that “6” that will get them where they need to go. Presumably, the Orioles will be looking to add pitching over the next month. But it’s worth noting that the pitching they currently have has been looking much better lately.

6. Dodgers (6)
7. Reds (11)
8. Marlins (7)
9. Giants (8)
10. Astros (9)
11. Yankees (10)
12. Blue Jays (12)
13. Phillies (13)
14. Angels (15)
15. Brewers (14)
16. Twins (16)
17. Red Sox (17)
18. Cubs (18)
19. Padres (19)
20. Guardians (20)
21. Mariners (21)
22. Pirates (22)
23. Mets (23)
24. White Sox (24)
25. Tigers (25)
26. Cardinals (26)
27. Nationals (27)
28. Rockies (28)
29. Royals (29)
30. A’s (30)