Indians surge into top five while Braves slide

The first, brief act of interleague play is done, with sweeps by the Tigers (over the hapless Cardinals) and the Angels (over the punchless Dodgers) giving the American League a slight edge over its National League punching bags. For those of you keeping track of these types of things at home, that is.

For those who are concerned with the more subtle, more important nuances of the mixing of the leagues ... well, here are this week's Power Rankings.

MLB Power Rankings Rank LW Team 1 1 Boston Red Sox Yes, Josh Beckett's finger avulsion (look it up) is a bit of a concern. But the Sox just won two series against two good teams (the Tigers and Braves). The pitching's as good as anybody's, even without Beckett. And when the Sox can score 5.4 runs a game without guys like J.D. Drew and Manny Ramirez hitting, you know that they'll be killer once they hit. And they will hit. The Yanks will find out. 2 3 New York Mets Welcome back, David Wright (.329 in May, seven homers, 19 RBIs). The Mets aren't clicking quite yet -- John Maine has a 6.19 ERA in his past three games and Carlos Delgado looks completely lost -- but they're doing enough to stand out as the best team in the NL, and it might not be close. We'll know more about that when the Mets travel to Atlanta this week to play the Braves (4-2 vs. the Mets). 3 7 Cleveland Indians If you count those snow games moved to Milwaukee -- and they do count -- the Indians are a baseball-best 16-4 at "home" this season, paced by Paul Byrd, who has a 4-0 record at home with a 3.81 ERA, all at Jacobs Field. The pitching -- C.C. Sabathia and the amazing Fausto Carmona, to name two more -- has been good, but the Indians are the highest-scoring team in baseball, too. That's hard to beat. 4 8 Los Angeles Angels The Angels have trouble scoring sometimes -- like, for the past couple of years -- but compared to the Dodgers, they're the '27 Yankees. LAA outscored LAD 19-4 last weekend in a Freeway Series sweep and has won five straight games. Reggie Willits is hitting .355 in May; the Angels are going to have to find a place for him once Garret Anderson returns, probably sometime this week. 5 5 Detroit Tigers It wasn't exactly revenge, that sweep of the Cards over the weekend. It was more like euthanasia, with the Tigers putting their World Series conquerors out of their misery. But if you listen to Jim Leyland, that interleague crap is all overblown anyway. "The players don't care who they play. That's high school stuff," Detroit's skipper groused. A tip: Better care this week. The Angels and Indians visit. 6 2 Atlanta Braves Nobody, anywhere, is in more of a funk than Andruw Jones right now. He struck out five times in a loss to the Red Sox on Sunday and, in his past eight games, has a whopping 17 whiffs. Since April 30, Jones is hitting .167, which has dropped his season average to .212 and forced Bobby Cox to drop him in the lineup. This is a contract year for Jones, too, so this flop could cost Jones as much it does the Braves. 7 4 Milwaukee Brewers The cries of disrespect have quieted from up north after three straight series losses by the Brewers and a 3-7 record in their last 10 games. You can point fingers a lot of places, but in that span, starting pitchers not named Sheets have an 0-5 record with a 6.60 ERA. "We're not playing with the confidence we were earlier in the season," J.J. Hardy said. Yeah, losing a lot will do that to you. 8 6 Los Angeles Dodgers The Dodgers aren't only not hitting, they're not catching, too. After committing six gaffes in getting swept by the Angels, the Dodgers lead the NL with 36 errors, which makes them officially worse than the Nationals. If they start not pitching -- their 3.58 ERA is third behind the Padres and Mets right now -- the Dodgers might as well not show up. That's kind of what happened last weekend. 9 9 San Diego Padres They keep squeaking by -- 8-10 in one-run games, most in the bigs -- and keep moving up on the Dodgers. San Diego's latest hero is Justin Germano, a 24-year-old righty who the Padres traded in 2005 and picked back up, off waivers, in March. In three starts, he's 2-0 with an 0.47 ERA over 19 strong innings, plenty good enough to earn him a regular spot in the rotation. Now if he could only hit ... 10 10 Arizona Diamondbacks That tall guy on the mound on Sunday -- scraggly hair, all-business mien, 96 mph fastball -- is bad news for the rest of the NL West, especially if that bad back of his holds up. The Diamondbacks may have their problems -- after all, who doesn't have issues in the NL West? -- but if Randy Johnson is truly back (28 Ks in his last three starts, 2-0 with a 2.55 ERA), they have a lot less to worry about.