They’re the hottest team in baseball, but they’re not the best team in the league over the past month. That honor belongs to the Astros, who are 24-8 with a plus-57 run differential since the start of June. Their latest work this weekend in Los Angeles, pulverizing the Dodgers by 23 runs over a three-game sweep, was especially eye-opening.

Astros manager Joe Espada visited the Dodger Stadium mound with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning on Saturday. His starter, Framber Valdez, had just walked Miguel Rojas with Shohei Ohtani due up,

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The Astros blasted the Dodgers 18-1 in Friday's series opener, and Houston clinched the series victory with a 6-4 win as moderate underdogs (+145) Saturday as the Over (9) cashed. Houston has picked up 5 victories in the past 6 meetings in this series,