By Tom Morris I spent the first part of Monday watching my Baltimore Orioles once again get pounded by a better team. I spent the rest of the daylight hours channel surfing in a desperate attempt to find something even more depressing. FOX News Channel? Nope. Jerry Springer Boot Camp episode? Nice try. I eventually gave up this unfruitful quest, resigned to the troubling truth that I support a consistently unimpressive baseball team. That wasn?t the only unsettling truth: I discovered that The View left me with an unmistakeably sunny disposition. Who knew Robin Givens could be such a charmer. I?ll tell you how my next therapy session goes. The rest of the Major Leagues is for the most part not nearly as saddening. The Yankees and Red Sox of the East, and the White Sox and Twins of the Central, have let us all know that the last two months of baseball will be a 15-round prizefight. Only two of the four get invited to the October party, and as of now they look to be evenly exchanging heavyweight blows. With a 2-game edge on historic enemy Boston, the Yanks just landed a solid right hook. But there are many more rounds to go. Just don?t expect A.J. Pierzynski to be in the fray this time around, however. Then there?s the Detroit Tigers, who yesterday stretched their division lead to 10. John Kruk, of Baseball Tonight, said the Tigers were the best team he?s seen in baseball for a long time. They continue to dominate, certainly. Yet the most amazing thing seems to be that anyone still continues to be amazed by them. In every aspect of the game they seem to have an edge. Pitching leads the way, as it also will when this team of young and old waltz all the way to the World Series. The National League, on the other hand, that puzzling bastion of paradox, continues to be baseball?s double-edged sword of excellence. How can an entire league have so many teams made up of equal parts playoff contender and postseason catastrophe. Like last week the Mets stand alone as the only team with a season-long level of excellence to be proud of. Even the mighty Cardinals have been flirting with disaster. And though the Dodgers look to be one team really trying to raise its hand right now in this sheepish National League schoolroom of mediocrity, here the grading is still very much done with a curve. Any one of these also-rans, if playing in the AL, would be either walking in place, or tripping over themselves. So be it. Fact is, 13 NL teams still have a shot at the postseason --and that includes Atlanta and Florida, both 9 games below .500?which makes for many weeks of meaningful baseball. No matter how the teams get to the finish. I should finish this piece, come to think of it. Here are your Weekly Top Team Rankings. Enjoy. [ Last Week?s Record, and Rankings, in Parentheses] 1. Detroit Tigers ( 5 ? 1) Last 7 games played the Tigers outscored their opponents 40 ? 21. Not bad. Acceptable. 20 games above .500 both at home and on the road, Detroit is not just head and shoulders above the rest. They are walking as tall as a giant. Even when their starting rotation falters there?s no-names like Zumaya, Ledezma and Ramon Colon to step in for the W. And a 36 ? 14 record against AL Central rivals bodes very well for any pivotal September matchups. 2. New York Yankees (3) ( 4 ? 1 ) It really must be something in the Bronx water. The pinstripes, despite an injury list too long to chronicle, and with a Randy Johnson no longer able to mystify hitters, hung tough for a long time. Now, with Bobby Abreu making his arrival felt in a big way, and with Mussina, Wang, Lidle and Wright at their sharpest, the Yankees are clearly on a roll. It?s scary to think of what happens when they get Cano and Sheffield back. 3. Minnesota Twins (5) ( 4 ? 2 ) This just in: Francisco Liriano, this team?s wunderkind, who pretty much persuaded his bosses he could start last night, has gone on the 15-day DL. This hurts a team which had been proving to us that a 34 ? 8 hot streak could have just been a preview of things to come. Fans in the twin cities need not clutch their hearts in anguish, though. The Twins, before last night, scored 41 runs in a 4-game sweep. OK, their opponent was KC, but it showed this team?s success was not built on pitching alone. Their next six weeks of scheduling is practically a back-and-forth of the best and the worst of the AL. Let?s see if Minnesota wins the ones they?re supposed to. 4. New York Mets (2) ( 3 ? 2 ) Only ?leaded? coffee could keep this team from walking its way to the playoffs. A 12 1/2 game lead, and a 5 1/2 game edge on the next-best division leader means little games of consequence. And with Glavine recently ending his first slump of the season, and with John Maine and ?El Duque? pitching very well of late, they might just have enough of a rotation to complement their heavy-hitting line-up in October. Management?s decision to sign youngster David Wright to a lucrative multi-year deal says a lot about his importance to this ballclub?s future, too. 5. Boston Red Sox (4) ( 2 - 3 ) Five homers and eight RBI in 7 games by Big Papi sure helps any team out, any time of the year. But it wasn?t enough to stop the Sox from losing 4 of 6 to Tampa Bay and Cleveland. Boston is also 6 ? 9 of late, with an ERA well above 5.00 this past week. The addition of disenchanted Oriole Javy Lopez will help, but it won?t be a salve for this team?s pains. It comes down to the rotation, where either Wells, Wakefield or Clement need to get healthy and/or return to form. And fast. The Yanks are only getting better, and they?re not the kind of team known to give anyone an inch of slack. 6. Chicago White Sox (6) ( 2 - 3 ) The White Sox, who turned a woeful 3 ? 12 plummet into a 6 ? 3 rebound, looked like they had pulled their head out of the water one week short of completely drowning. But last night?s hittable performance by Mark Buehrle reminded me what is wrong with this club over the past few months. Their starting rotation is full of holes (Garcia, Contreras) it never even had to mend last year, and now the bullpen is showing signs of wear from so much overuse. We all know what this team is capable of, however. Putting it together for the stretch run means entering October with a purpose. It?s gonna be one hell of a wild-card push this year. 7. Oakland Athletics (9) ( 5 ? 0 ) The A?s prove to everyone, once again, they can pitch with the best of them. It?s an annual thing. At some point, sooner or later, Oakland establishes itself as the home of stingy pitchers. This week was testament to that, a five-game wining streak putting the club 10 games over .500 for the first time this year. To think what this team will be able to do when Eric Chavez and Rich Harden get back from the DL. They could, maybe, grab a fleeting lead in a single game against the Tigers in October. 8. Los Angeles Angels (7) ( 3 ? 3 ) Lost Bartolo Colon to an injury almost certain to end his season. But the fact is, despite some shoddy defense and a one-dimensional line-up, the Halos, like the A?s, are in it because of their arms. It may turn out Colon, who had only five wins, may have been the 6th starter anyway. Rookies like Saunders and Weaver are all of a sudden gamers, and Ervin Santana and Lackey know what they?re doing too. There may be noone to back up Vlad?s bat, but expect the Angels to keep very close to Oakland down the stretch. 9. St. Louis Cardinals (8) ( 3 ? 3 ) Flirting with disaster? It was starting to look like they were plain throwing themselves at it. Three straight victories keep the Cards from being shuffled right to the bottom of this deck. They sure show resilience, despite both a starting rotation and a batting order miles removed from their collective excellence of 2004 and 2005. After staff ace Chris Carpenter there?s Jeff Suppan (4.85 ERA); Jason Marquis (whose 12 Ws bely a staggering 5.68 ERA), and Jeff Weaver, who is starting to show small signs of resurgence. One would think Mark Mulder?s eventual return from the DL would help. But his numbers before he got injured: 6 ? 5, with an ERA just over 6.00! Ouch. Hard to see a bright future for this squad, though it?s certainly not impossible. 10. Los Angeles Dodgers (15) ( 6 ? 0 ) Just got Jeff Kent back. What?s he do? A dinger and 3 ribbies. Nomar?s on his way back too. If he makes a splash even remotely as big, we?ll take note. Oh, and there?s new additions Lugo and Greg ?The Mudder? Maddux. And a little thing called a 10-game winning streak, which has already made the preceding 8-game slide look like a little hiccup. They are scoring runs in bunches all of a sudden, and held opponents to a collective .192 BA the past 7 games. Just like that, the Dodgers are on their way to the postseason. Yep. That convincing. 11. Toronto Blue Jays (11) ( 2 ? 4 ) The Blue Jays must be happy they?re playing Baltimore right now. A team that was just in it in the AL East for so long, is now really starting to derail. A.J. Burnett may prove to be the biggest waste of a signing if he can?t find a way to live up to his offseason contract. And all of a sudden the?yre potent bats have been quited as well. That spells slump, but also shows how this team, improved though it may be, still needs another year of hazing to get to Yankee-Red Sox level. 12. Cincinnati Reds ( 10 ) (2 ? 4) The Reds may have added a number of arms to their team last Monday, so here?s hoping the dividends return. Last week: a team ERA of 5.71. The only thing they could feel happy about was that the Cardinals went through a more pronounced slump over the past two weeks than they did. Lost the first game of a 3-game set against St. Louis yesterday, and are batting .201 over the last 7 days. Bright side? At 57 ? 54, they are tied for the Wild-Card lead. Welcome to the National League, folks. 13. San Diego Padres ( 12 ) (3 ? 2) The Padres, another team with strong pitching and no bats, are starting to sweat, and so they should be. The Dodgers are on the rise, while they themselves hover just above ground level. The only noise this team will make from here on out will be the thunderous thud they make after falling the last few feet over the next month. 14. Philadelphia Phillies (Not-Ranked) (4 ? 2) It?s truly remarkable this team is below .500. Fact is, for all theiur scuffling, slumping and such, when they play well this team can impress. All it takes is a little solid pitching, and a line-up with Utley, Howard, Burrell and Rollins take hold. But unless they continue this recent rise in the rankings, they?ll have to hear all about what went wrong from the mouths of Baseball Tonight analysts. 15. Colorado Rockies (Not-Ranked) (3 ? 2) Going down the list of team ERAs over the past week. Let?s see. Yankees. Check. Oakland. Check. Detroit. Duh. Colorado. Whoa. A 2.87 ERA this past week just barely helps divert our attention away from the glare provided by a .218 team BA. Cannot get on base, and that?s that. Hardly a surprise, since both the AL and NL Wests are made up of teams sorely lacking in either pitching or offense. Case closed. But these bottom spots of my Rankings is where many of those teams reside. Just enough to warraant the slightest footnote of a mention. Not something to write home about. And so, Here Endeth the Listeth. I have been trying to resist another full, wondrous afternoon of daytime television. So much to learn, so little time. As always, keep mind in the game and the game on your mind.