Three Up, Three Down: The MLB hot/cold report

If you like baseball, you probably love home runs. If you say otherwise, I'm going to give you the sharpest of side-eyes, and I'll probably question whether or not you really enjoy this sport. Either way, home runs are fun, and if you're a fan of the Red Sox or Cleveland, then you certainly got way more dingers than a nutritionist would recommend for your diet.

The Red Sox have already stormed out of the gates with plenty of power in their bats, but Mookie Betts took it to a whole new level Wednesday. The Red Sox beat the Royals 5-4 and ended up needing every last bit of offense that they could get from Betts, and he provided plenty: three dingers, to be exact. His second home run of the day put Boston in the lead, and his final long ball gave the Sox the insurance they needed to put away Kansas City.

Meanwhile in Cleveland, there wasn't too much drama as the Indians just pounded on the Rangers 12-4. Still, the lack of drama didn't stop Edwin Encarnacion from taking his parrot on a ride on three separate occasions. He homered in his first two at-bats in the first and second innings, respectively, and then added another dinger to make it 12-4, just as the Rangers were pleading for mercy. All hail Mookie Betts and Edwin Encarnacion, Kings of the Long Ball.

The New York Yankees are red-hot

Last week, when it came to the Yankees, the focus was squarely on Didi Gregorius and his hot start at the plate. Now, it appears that the rest of the Yankees have raised their game to his level, and New York proceed to go on a tear. Last week the Yanks extended their winning streak all the way to nine games before eventually losing to the Astros. Even then, they proceeded to win their next two games against Houston and now have a chance to leave Texas with three wins out of a four-game series.

So, what's been the key to New York's awakening as we enter May? Luis Severino has gotten off to a lovely start on the mound, and he capped it off with his first career complete game on Wednesday. Wednesday was also a great day for Giancarlo Stanton, who is surely hoping that a two-homer game will break him out of his slumber. The fact the Yankees have been clobbering the ball while Stanton is still getting his bearings is definitely encouraging.

Either way, with both the Yankees and Red Sox getting off to hot starts, it's clear the AL East is going to be a fun race to keep an eye on this season. Even if you're somehow still fatigued of both teams from their days of dominance in the 2000s, it's exciting to watch both teams when they're good. This season is no different.

Are the Braves finally back?

On Wednesday night, the Braves beat the Mets 7-0 in order to move to 18-11 on the season. More importantly, the win was enough to put Atlanta in first place after April for the first time since July 2014. The Braves chose to rebuild after an ill-fated season in 2014. Now it appears they're out of the wilderness and could be closer to contending than anybody could have imagined.

They're also led by youth. The Braves currently have the three youngest players in MLB on their active roster, and all three of them could be major contributors to any success the team has this year. Ozzie Albies has gotten off to a scalding-hot start at the plate, super prospect Ronald Acuña Jr. has hit the ground running since being called up and fellow super prospect Mike Soroka had about as good of a debut as you could ask of a 20-year-old making his first career major league start.

When you combine that youth movement with Freddie Freeman continuing to play at an elite level, you have a recipe for what could be a very exciting Braves team this season. While it's totally understandable to believe that they'll slow down and the Nationals will eventually heat up, it's safe to say that the Braves (and even the Phillies and Mets) are probably going to give them a few more problems than they expected this season.

Three Down

Dodgers dealing with some major issues

As excited as I am as an admitted fan of the Braves, I do have to temper my expectations. Normally, you really shouldn't pay attention to the standings until Memorial Day since everybody will have two months of baseball under its belt by then. With that said, it might be time to get a little bit concerned about the Los Angeles Dodgers and their slow start to the season.

As of right now, they are closer to the cellar-dwelling San Diego Padres than they are the high-flying Arizona Diamondbacks. Part of that slow start has to do with the fact they're dealing with a severe injury bug. Justin Turner, Yasiel Puig and Hyun-Jin Ryu are all on the shelf, and worst of all Corey Seager won't be seen for another year following Tommy John surgery.

You can't pin their slow start all on injuries, but they sure don't help things. It just feels like the Dodgers are stuck in neutral at the moment, and even though it's early, if A.J. Pollock and the Diamondbacks continue to keep up their strong start, the Dodgers will have a monster of a fight on their hands if they want to keep their stranglehold on the NL West title intact for yet another season.

Trevor Bauer basically accuses Astros of cheating

The defending World Series champions are off to a solid start this season — even if Ken Giles is trying his best to beat himself up. Part of this is due to the pitching staff picking up where it left off last year and even improving upon a recipe that helped take Houston to the World Series title. Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole have both thrived since arriving in Houston, but some people are skeptical as to whether or not everything is on the level.

Trevor Bauer in particular joined a brigade on Twitter that seems to believe the Astros are doctoring their balls. While he didn't flat-out say Houston was cheating, he heavily implied it. It's also clear that the Astros themselves got the message, because they proceeded to take turns taking Bauer to the Smackdown Hotel on Twitter.

While Lance McCullers simply accused Bauer of being jealous, Alex Bregman took it a step further and called Trevor "Tyler" while also pulling off a double whammy of reminding Bauer of his World Series failure and simultaneously letting him know that the Astros have a ring. Bauer's Twitter display name currently reads as Trevor "Tyler" Bauer. That's called taking your "L" in stride.

The Brewers see the Cubs in their nightmares

Last week, I told you about how the Brewers were loose and happy as they were on a week-long winning streak. Everything was all good! The world was lovely and kind to them. Unfortunately, we should have known that this was going to abruptly come to an end because the very next team on Milwaukee's schedule was the Chicago Cubs.

The Cubs spent last September crushing Milwaukee's hopes of winning the NL Central by repeatedly beating the Brew Crew at Miller Park. This season, the Cubs have continued to let the Brewers know who's the boss. The Brewers went into the series at Wrigley Field on an eight-game winning streak. They left Chicago on Sunday with a four-game losing streak after the Cubs swept them to take all four games.

Milwaukee is still at the top of the division, but that series may have given the Cubs the jolt they need here in the early stages of the season. Plus, the Cubs can go into the rest of this season knowing that they have bought prime real estate in the heads of the Brew Crew. If this is what they're doing to the Brewers now, then who knows what Milwaukee's tormentors in Illinois have in store as the season progresses?