The American League Power Rankings are out and the Boston Red Sox are back on top, with old rival New York not far behind.
For a variety of reasons some good, and some unspeakably bad, this past week was one that won't be soon forgotten.
The impact of the Patriots Day terrorist attacks on the Boston Marathon was felt worldwide, but no where was it felt more than in New England, and more specifically the city of Boston.
Through it all there was a full week of baseball played.
Last week will be best remembered for the song "Sweet Caroline" being played at ballparks all over the Nation. It will be remembered for the twitter hashtag "#BostonStrong," which made the leap from social media to the uniforms of the Boston Red Sox.
There were also plenty of actual baseball games. The Yankees faced off against the team that beat them in the 2001 World Series when they hosted the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Bronx.
The Boston Red Sox travelled to Cleveland, where they faced their former manager Terry Francona and his new team, the Indians.
The Royals continue to impress, and the Blue Jays continue to disappoint.
Let's get to the rankings.
Number 1, Boston Red Sox (12-6): First Place A.L. East. Last week No. 3
There were plenty of things that could have become legitimate distractions to the Red Sox last week.
Nothing really rattled them though. Well nothing except a day-night doubleheader against the Royals on Sunday.
A walk-off win on Monday against the Rays. Then a three-game road sweep of the Cleveland Indians followed by dropping two of three at home against the Kansas City Royals.
The Red Sox are tied for the best record in the league and own the league's best run differential.
The team welcomed back slugger David Ortiz and continues to receive dominant performances from pitchers Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz.
As long as the pitching continues to impress this team will continue to win.
Number 2, Texas Rangers (12-6): First Place A.L. West. Last week No. 2
The Rangers spent last week doing exactly what they were supposed to do. They took advantage of playing both the Chicago Cubs and the Seattle Mariners and won four of their five games.
These aren't the same Rangers that slug their way to victory.
Derek Holland, Yu Darvish and Alexi Ogando are all off to great starts. Texas is neck-and-neck for the best team earned run average in the league.
They're not hitting all that well, but a lineup with Ian Kinsler, Elvis Andrus, Nelson Cruz and Adrian Beltre will eventually put up some runs. Add-in a hot start by veteran Lance Berkman and the Rangers appear to be positioning themselves for pretty good season.
Number 3, Oakland A's (12-7): Second Place, A.L. West. Last week No.1
The A's were No. 1 last week, and after they had swept the Astros to begin the week it seemed likely they'd remain at the top.
One bad trip to Tampa changed all of that.
Oakland went to Tampa without their best hitter Yoenis Cespedes and proceeded to lose three in row.
The A's only managed to score four runs in the disastrous three game set, and while it was only one series, it was enough to knock Oakland from the top spot in our power rankings, and out of first-place in the A.L. West.
Number 4, New York Yankees (10-7): Second Place, A.L. East. Last week No. 6
The old, injured, Derek Jeter-less Yankees continue to win baseball games.
Two of three from the Diamondbacks and then two of three from the Blue Jays. The Yankees are winning a lot more games than they're losing.
It isn't as if the team is getting healthier either.
Thursday afternoon the team learned that they'd be without Derek Jeter until after the All-Star break, when an x-ray revealed a stress fracture in his ankle.
Kevin Youkilis had to be removed from Saturday's game after experiencing lower back tightness.
The Yankees are still old, they're still injured but they keep winning baseball games.
Eventually they're going to get some of their injured players back and if the team is still playing good baseball then they could be very tough to beat this summer.
Number 5, Kansas City Royals (10-7): First Place, A.L. Central. Last week No. 5
The Royals are a team that is getting better than expected production from starting pitchers Ervin Santana, Jeremy Guthrie and Wade Davis.
On the flip side two of the franchise's best young players, Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer are both extending second-season slumps into their third seasons.
Add in a slow start by Billy Butler who was the team's best bat in 2012 and the Royals are a good team with plenty of room to get better.
Kansas City traversed a difficult week in which they played two of baseball's best teams. The Royals split a two-game series with the Atlanta Braves and then won two-of-three on the road against the Boston Red Sox.
With divisional match-ups against both Detroit and Cleveland coming up this week the Royals will get an opportunity to show their rivals how much they've improved.
Number 6, Baltimore Orioles (10-8): Third Place, A.L. East. Last week No. 7
Wasn't the American League East supposed to be the league's weakest division?
It looks fairly strong right now.
The Baltimore Orioles are the league's best third place team. Led by the white-hot bat of Chris Davis who is hitting .403 with seven home runs and 21 RBIs, the Orioles won series against both the Rays and the Los Angeles Dodgers last week.
The concern for the Orioles is that at some point Davis will probably cool off at the plate. When that happens does the team have enough pitching to contend? Right now they rank eighth in the league in E.R.A.
They better hope that Davis and Adam Jones continue hitting.
Number 7, Minnesota Twins (8-7): Second Place, A.L. Central. Last week, No. 13
The Twins have these guys named Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. One was the A.L. MVP in 2009 and the other took home the award back in 2007.
The point being that this is not a team devoid of talent.
Two postponements and one off day meant that the Twins only played four games last week. They won all four of them.
They're not winning pretty, but the Twins are winning. In fact aside from the .375 hitting Mauer the Twins are really struggling at the plate. The Twins are near the bottom in most offensive categories and they're pitching is nothing to proud of ranking ninth in team E.R.A.
For now the wins keep coming. How long that lasts is a legitimate question.
Number 8, Detroit Tigers (8-8): Third Place, A.L. Central. Last week, No. 4
Apparently the Detroit Tigers are creatures of habit.
Among those habits are starting seasons in which they're supposed to be very good, very slowly.
That's what the Tigers did in 2012, and that's what they're doing in 2013 as well. Luckily for Detroit their slow start isn't that slow. They're a .500 team. That's well below expectations, but this early in the season it is hardly worth panicking over.
Then again the team is currently on a four-game losing streak. Detroit is in the midst of one of those stretches where when the pitching is great, they don't hit, and when they score a ton of runs, the pitching implodes.
They're in a division where being in third place places them a mere one-and-a-half games out of first.
The Tigers play the first-place Royals this week. One hot stretch could put the team back atop the Central. Don't be surprised if the Tigers start to win some games soon.
Number 9, Tampa Bay Rays (8-10): Fourth Place A.L. East. Last week, No. 12
On Thursday Night following an extra-innings loss to Baltimore the Rays found themselves with a 5-10 record.
No problem.
The Rays simply dug down and called upon what the franchise is best known for, pitching.
A weekend three-game series against the Oakland A's turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. The Rays shutdown the American League's highest scoring offense. They held the A's to four runs in three games and all of a sudden the Rays have a little momentum.
Tampa starts this week with a three game series against the Yankees. If the Rays can keep winning then they'll be right back near the top of the division by midweek.
Number 10, Toronto Blue Jays (8-11): Last Place, A.L. East. Last week, No. 11
Toronto is still having problems, but they're inching up the rankings because other teams in the league are playing even worse.
It still isn't pretty though. Last week the Jays played seven games, all at home. That would seem to work in their favor,but the Jays still lost four of seven.
Now a Toronto team that desperately needs to keep pace with their division rivals is staring at a week where they play both the Yankees and the Orioles. If they can win a majority of those games then they'll inch closer to the pack. If not, then the Jays could be digging themselves a formidable hole early in what could be a long season.
Number 11, Los Angeles Angels (7-10): Third Place, A.L. West. Last week, No. 15
The Angels were in dead last one week ago. What changed?
Mike Trout.
The reigning A.L. Rookie of The Year had a monster week. He hit .450 with two home runs and 10 RBI.
The Angels pitching is still woeful, but the team's .287 batting average is the best in the league.
Starting pitching is a major issue though. The injury to Jered Weaver leaves L.A. too thin in the starting rotation. They simply don't have the horses to go on a long winning streak. Trout's resurgence, and the rest of what is a potent lineup will provide enough offense to prevent the team from falling too far out of contention.
Number 12, Cleveland Indians (7-10): Fourth Place, A.L. Central. Last week, No. 8
Terry Francona's Indians are only 2-6 at home. That's just one of this team's problems.
The Indians pitching is ranked near the bottom of the American League, but what is really doing this team in their fielding. Cleveland leads all of the A.L. with 13 errors this season.
The offense is good, but not good enough to overcome the team's deficiencies on the mound or in the field.
Cleveland absorbed three home losses to the Red Sox last week but caught a break by traveling to Houston where they won two of three from the Astros.
They can't play all their games against the Astros though, and that's beginning to look like it could pose a problem.
Number 13, Chicago White Sox (7-11): Last Place, A.L. Central. Last week, No. 10
With all the stress that people place on pitching, sometimes it is easy to forget that a team actually has to score runs to win games.
The White Sox are third in the league in E.R.A. and they've allowed only 67 runs to score, good for fourth in the A.L.
They're not scoring though. The White Sox have the lowest on-base percentage in the league and the team's 61 runs scored tie them for last.
Players such as Adam Dunn and Tyler Flowers spend far too much time striking out and not enough time making contact.
The White Sox are a team in serious trouble. They're already in last place and their aging and ineffective offense might keep them there for most of 2013.
Number 14, Seattle Mariners (7-13): Fourth Place A.L. West. Last week, No. 9
Six games, five losses, capped off by a three-game sweep at the hands of the Rangers where Seattle was outscored 23-3.
The Mariners are hitting .218 as a team and there's plenty of blame to go around.
Kyle Seager's .268 batting average is tops among everyday starters. Michael Saunders, who was off to a hot start is on the disabled list. It is still plenty early but the Mariners are already six games out of first place and owners of the league's worst run differential of -35.
They're not in dead last though.
Number 15, Houston Astros (5-13): Last Place, A.L West. Last week, No. 14
The Astros spent one week out of the cellar, but that's over now.
The offense isn't awful, but the pitching is. No team has in all of baseball has allowed more than the 108 runs that Astros hurlers have.
Houston has lost seven of its last ten. The only good news is that Houston plays a three-game series against the equally as bad Seattle Mariners this week. The bad news is after that they hit the road to play four games against the first place Boston Red Sox.
The Astros have lost more than 100 games in each of the last two seasons. So far 2013 is shaping up a lot like 2012 and 2011.