The Times’ baseball rankings

In honor of the Billboard Music Awards, which will be presented Sunday in Las Vegas, Times staff writer Kevin Baxter offers a music-themed look at Major League Baseball. (Statistics through Friday’s games. Last week’s rankings in parentheses):

TOP OF THE HIT PARADE

1. ST. LOUIS “Start Me Up” Rotation tops MLB with seven shutouts, 2.53 ERA and 24 wins (1)

2. TEXAS “Here Comes the Boom” Rangers lead majors with 26 homers in 16 May games (4)

3. N.Y. YANKEES “New York State of Mind” First-place Yanks an AL-best 15-9 at home (3)

4. CLEVELAND “Cleveland Rocks” First-place Indians have AL’s best record (12-4) in May (11)

5. CINCINNATI “Walking on Sunshine” Votto, Choo both on pace for 115 walks (12)

6. DETROIT “I’ve Been There Before” Cabrera leading two of three Triple Crown categories (5)

7. BALTIMORE “A Baltimore Love Thing” O’s 74-35 since calling up Manny Machado in August (2)

8. SAN FRANCISCO “Call Me Maybe” Calls to Giants ’pen answered with 10 wins, 14 saves, 2.75 ERA (7)

9. BOSTON “Sweet Caroline” Indeed, Pedroia hitting .393 at Fenway, .275 on road (6)

10. ARIZONA “Desert Star” Goldschmidt (.625, 3 HRs in 4 games) lifts ’Backs to West lead (10)

11. ATLANTA “We Are Young” With average age of 27.3, first-place Braves youngest team in NL (8)

MOVING UP THE CHARTS

12. PITTSBURGH “Whip It” ’Pen has MLB’s best walks/hits to innings pitched ratio (1.13) (14)

13 WASHINGTON “These Arms” Only Cardinals have pitched better than Nats (3.24 ERA) (9)

14. TAMPA BAY “Somebody That I Used to Know” Ex-Dodger Loney hitting .371 for streaking Rays (19)

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

15. KANSAS CITY “All By Myself” Shields gives up 4 earned runs in 24 IP but KC loses all 3 starts (13)

16. COLORADO “Rocky Mountain High” Rockies averaging 5.35 runs a game at home (15)

17. OAKLAND “Everything’s Changed” A’s hitting .217 in May after batting .253 in April (16)

18. SEATTLE “It Takes Two” Hernandez, Iwakuma 10-3, 1.68 ERA combined (20)

19. CHICAGO WHITE SOX “Calling All Angels” Sale allows four hits, no runs, 19 Ks in 16 2/3IP vs. LAA (25)

OUT OF TUNE

20. PHILADELPHIA “Our House” Among NL teams, only Brewers have worse home ERA (21)

21. MINNESOTA “Control Myself” No-name Twins staff has walked an MLB-low 95 hitters (17)

22. MILWAUKEE “Ironic” Segura, Gomez 1-2 in NL in hitting but team is 2-13 in May (18)

23. N.Y. METS “Closing Time” Parnell gets three wins, three saves in last seven IP out of ’pen (23)

24. SAN DIEGO “Padres Tristes” Without Marquis (5-5, 3.49) Padres rotation is 8-11, 5.47 (24)

AND YOU THOUGHT THE JONAS BROTHERS WERE BAD

25. CHICAGO CUBS “One Man Army” Feldman 2-0, 1.23 in three starts, rest of staff 5-8, 4.02 in May (27)

26. DODGERS “Money for Nothing” Dodgers have more than $66 million on the DL (26)

27. ANGELS “Build Me Up, Buttercup” ... especially in the bullpen, where Angels have 4.24 ERA (22)

28. TORONTO “Wild Thing” Jays’ staff walking nearly four batters a game (28)

29. MIAMI “The Sound of Silence” Woeful Marlins averaging NL-worst 18,076 fans at new home (29)

30. HOUSTON “Everything’s Bigger in Texas” Astros have oversized ERA of 6.19 in May (30)