The Milwaukee Brewers Have the Best Record in Baseball and Four Divisions Are Still Inside Five Games

With about a month of the 2026 regular season left, three of baseball's six divisions are effectively settled and three are not.

Milwaukee have the best record in the sport at 85-53 and lead the National League Central by seven games from the Chicago Cubs. The Los Angeles Dodgers are 82-55 in the National League West, ahead of San Diego at 73-65 and Arizona at 73-66. Atlanta lead the National League East at 82-56, four clear of Philadelphia at 78-60.

The American League is tighter everywhere except the east. Tampa Bay are 82-55 and lead the New York Yankees by four and a half. In the Central, the Chicago White Sox lead at 72-65 with Cleveland three back at 69-68. In the West, Houston are 70-68 and Texas are 68-70 — a two-game gap between teams both hovering around .500.

That last division is the anomaly worth noting. A first-place team two games above break-even at the end of August is rare, and it means the American League West will likely send a winner to the postseason with a record several of the wild card contenders will beat. The imbalance between the two leagues is stark: the National League's three leaders are all at least 26 games above .500, while two of the American League's three are barely above it.

For the wild card races, the practical effect is that the American League's spare places are worth more than usual and the National League's are worth less. A team finishing third in the National League Central or West may well have a better record than the American League West champion.

One caveat on these figures. The win-loss records above are drawn from a single standings snapshot and were not cross-checked against a second source, so they should be verified against MLB's own standings page before being quoted as of a particular date. Records in a pennant race change daily, and any article built on them dates quickly.

Thirty-one days remain in the regular season.