Dodgers sit atop MLB power rankings
USA Today’s latest power rankings list the back-to-back World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at No. 1 after a blistering start to the season. (usatoday.com) The Dodgers also have a themed promotion — Hello Kitty Hoodie night — coming as they host the New York Mets, marking a crowded calendar around Jackie Robinson festivities. (sports.yahoo.com)
Los Angeles opened the week at No. 1 in USA Today’s Major League Baseball power rankings after a 12-4 start put the Dodgers on top of the National League West. (usatoday.com) (mlb.com) Major League Baseball’s official standings listed the Dodgers at 12-4 and plus-39 in run differential as of Tuesday morning, April 14. San Diego was second in the division at 10-6, two games back. (mlb.com) The ranking landed as the Dodgers opened a three-game home series against the New York Mets on Monday, April 13, with Hello Kitty Night at Dodger Stadium. The club said fans entering the park would receive a gray hoodie, and Hello Kitty was scheduled for photos in Centerfield Plaza and the ceremonial first pitch. (mlb.com) That series runs straight into Jackie Robinson Day on Wednesday, April 15, when the Dodgers said they will give fans a commemorative jersey presented by UCLA Health. The Mets and Dodgers are also scheduled to gather at Robinson’s No. 42 statue before the game for the club’s annual reflection. (mlb.com) The calendar is crowded because the Dodgers are selling baseball and ballpark spectacle at the same time. Their second homestand includes three giveaways, two special ticket-pack nights and the Robinson tribute within a six-game stretch, according to the club. (mlb.com) USA Today had already put Los Angeles at No. 1 in its preseason rankings on February 2 and again on Opening Day on March 25. The April 13 list kept the Dodgers there after what the paper described as a blistering opening stretch. (usatoday.com 1) (usatoday.com 2) (usatoday.com 3) The homestand began after Los Angeles swept the Washington Nationals and then took two of three from the Toronto Blue Jays, the Dodgers said in a team release on April 9. That release described Toronto as a rematch of the 2025 World Series. (mlb.com) Jackie Robinson Day adds another layer because Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s modern color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, and April 15 marks the anniversary of his debut. The Dodgers said Bob Kendrick of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Jackie Robinson Foundation scholars and Robinson’s granddaughters are expected to join the pregame events. (mlb.com 1) (mlb.com 2) For now, the Dodgers have the ranking, the record and the spotlight at once. The next two nights against the Mets will decide whether the club carries all three into Jackie Robinson Day on April 15. (usatoday.com) (mlb.com)
