Surprise! There's been quite a bit of parity in the race for baseball's best record

The 2025 regular season was supposed to be about Dodger dominance.

Instead, the race for baseball's best record has turned into a free for all.

If there were any concerns about a Los Angeles behemoth running roughshod over the sport, that hasn't materialized so far. In fact, eight different teams have spent the past three months passing baseball's best record around like a hot potato.

The race for the top record in the major leagues is in many ways symbolic. Home field advantage in the postseason isn't quite the prize it is in the NFL or NBA, and there's no Presidents' Trophy given for regular-season excellence like in the NHL. But the number of teams that have taken a turn at the top is noteworthy. Since May 1, the Dodgers, Tigers, Padres, Mets, Phillies, Cubs, Brewers and Blue Jays have all held the best record at some point.

Five of those teams have held the top spot in an even more recent span — since July 1.

Since the American League and National League began expanding significantly in 1961, this is only the fifth time at least eight teams have held (or tied for) the best record in baseball through games of May 1 or later, according to Sportrader. One of those seasons was 2020, when the whole 60-game schedule was after that date. The others were 1963 (eight teams), 1982 (eight) and 2021 (nine).

The largest lead any team has been able to open on the rest of the majors — all season — is when Detroit was three games up for a few days shortly before the All-Star break.

Here are the teams (or pairs of teams) that have led the major league standings at the end of each day since the start of May.

May 1-7: Dodgers

May 8-9: Dodgers and Tigers

May 10: Padres

May 11-12: Dodgers

May 13: Mets and Tigers

May 14: Tigers

May 15: Dodgers and Tigers

May 16-22: Tigers

May 23-27: Phillies

May 28-June 10: Tigers

June 11-12: Mets

June 13-24: Tigers

June 25-26: Dodgers and Tigers

June 27: Dodgers

June 28-30: Dodgers and Tigers

July 1-4: Dodgers

July 5: Dodgers and Tigers

July 6-18: Tigers

July 19: Cubs

July 20: Tigers

July 21: Brewers

July 22: Brewers and Cubs

July 23-24: Brewers

July 25-27: Blue Jays

July 28-Aug. 3: Brewers

Seven of baseball's current franchises have never finished with game's best regular-season record. Who are they?

For the first few weeks of the season, it looked like the Dodgers might indeed be on their way to well over 100 wins. The defending champs — who had added pitchers Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki in the offseason — won their first eight games, but since then Los Angeles has looked mortal. In early June, the Dodgers had 14 pitchers on the injured list, and although they're in first place in their division, their current winning percentage of .580 would be their worst since 2018 if that's where they finish the season.

Pittsburgh's Liover Peguero hit three home runs Saturday in an 8-5 loss to Colorado. It was a tough defeat to swallow for the Pirates, who actually gave ace Paul Skenes some run support, only for him to allow four runs in five-plus innings.

On the topic of tough losses to swallow, the Pirates also fell to the Rockies on Friday night — after scoring nine runs in the top of the first. Pittsburgh led 16-10 before allowing two in the eighth and five in the bottom of the ninth. Brenton Doyle hit a two-run homer to win it 17-16 for Colorado, which had a win probability of 0.5% in the eighth according to Baseball Savant.

The Rockies are the only team this season to win after falling nine runs behind, and they continue to make progress in their effort to avoid matching or breaking the modern record for losses set by the Chicago White Sox last year. Colorado went 3-3 this week and is now 30-81 on the season. The White Sox went 41-121

Unsurprisingly, the seven are among the majors' younger franchises — the Rays, Diamondbacks, Marlins, Rockies, Blue Jays, Padres and Rangers.

Of the teams that have finished with the best record in baseball, the one with the longest current drought is the Twins, who last did so in 1965.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Chicago Cubs' Justin Turner, right, celebrates with Michael Busch, left, after hitting the winning two-run home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles in Chicago, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Seranthony Domínguez works against the Kansas City Royals during first-inning baseball game action in Toronto, Sunday Aug. 3, 2025. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Milwaukee Brewers' Christian Yelich singles during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

PARIS (AP) — Power problems and a stuck train interrupted rail services through the undersea Channel Tunnel connecting the U.K. and continental Europe on Tuesday, stranding passengers and ruining vacation plans during the busy end-of-year holiday period.

At Paris' Gare du Nord station, Jamie and Issy Gill scrambled to find a flight back to the U.K. after their Eurostar train to London was canceled, desperate to be reunited with their baby boy after enjoying a getaway together in the French capital.

“We came for my 30th birthday and we were supposed to go back on the Eurostar, but everything is canceled,” she said. "We have a 1-year-old at home, with my mum and dad. I'm going to get upset,” she said, wiping away tears.

“It’s a stressful situation,” Jamie Gill said. He said that they'd now have to take a roundabout route back, with a flight via Birmingham on Wednesday.

“It's just, like, the first time we came away without him,” she said.

Eurostar — which runs passenger trains between London and Paris and other European destinations — blamed “overhead power supply issues in the Channel Tunnel” and what it said was a failed train operated by LeShuttle, which transports vehicles and their passengers by rail through the tunnel between the ports of Calais, France, and Folkestone, England.

Eurostar said in a statement that its services “are suspended until further notice," and advised its passengers to rebook their journeys for other days.

In London, disappointed would-be traveler John Paul had been expecting to enjoy a romantic river cruise in Paris and a trip to the Eiffel Tower with his partner Lucy, but their early morning Eurostar got turned back before reaching the continent.

“We got probably about an hour down the track, maybe 40 minutes, and then they basically said the train’s got to stop, because the train ahead got a braking issue,” the 46-year-old Paul said.

“They kept telling us that the driver was trying to fix the brakes on this other train and that the other trains were then backed up," he said. "There’s no clear information and, obviously, we’ve lost a lot of money, haven’t we?”

“We’ll have to put romance on hold for a while," he said.

The Channel Tunnel's operator, Eurotunnel, said in a separate statement that the power supply problem started overnight Monday in part of the tunnel, impacting both passenger and vehicle travel by rail in both directions through the tunnel.

It said that traffic is expected to resume gradually on Tuesday afternoon.

“A technical intervention is required, which is currently underway,” it said. “Our teams are working to restore the situation as quickly as possible.”

John Leicester and Sylvie Corbet in Paris, and Danica Kirka in London, contributed to this report.

Travelers wait at the Gare du Nord station after an incident related to the power supply to trains occurred last night in part of the Channel Tunnel, affecting train and shuttle traffic. Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Travellers queue for Eurostar services at St Pancras International station in London, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025 after Eurostar asked train customers not to travel because of disruption in the Channel Tunnel. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

The screen board displays the trains' arrival status at St Pancras International train station in London, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025 after Eurostar asked train customers not to travel because of disruption in the Channel Tunnel. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Travelers queue for Eurostar services at St Pancras International station in London, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Passengers queue to enter the Eurotunnel site in Folkestone in Kent, England, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)

FILE - A train coming from London leaves the Northbound Channel tunnel in Calais, northern France, on Jan. 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)