5 series to keep your eye on this week

Through nearly a quarter of the season, we've seen some teams get off to historically good starts while others are off to uncharacteristically bad starts. Several of those teams will be front-and-center in some of the most intriguing matchups of the week. Here are five series to watch during the week of May 8:

Cardinals (11-24) at Cubs (17-17)
3 games (Monday-Wednesday)

Head-to-head: The Cardinals dominated the series in 2022 by taking 13 of 19 games against the Cubs. These are not the same teams in '23, however. The Cardinals are off to their worst start to a season since 1907 while the Cubs are playing competitive baseball for the first time since the shortened '20 season.

Storyline: What the heck is going on in St. Louis? Fans are frustrated. The players are even more frustrated. For a team that expects annual excellence and has not finished below .500 since 2007, this type of start is jarring. While anything is possible, only two teams have ever started 11-24 or worse and made the playoffs, with the 1981 Royals being the last team to do it.

Watch out for: Cody Bellinger. After struggling offensively in his last two seasons with the Dodgers, Bellinger has thrived in his first year on the North Side of Chicago. Thanks to shaving his strikeout rate roughly 8% from last year and doing damage against breaking balls again, Bellinger enters the series with a .300/.368/.567 line. Against a Cardinals rotation that has struggled to prevent runs (5.33) and miss bats (20.1%), Bellinger could be in for a huge series.

Rays (28-7) at Orioles (22-10)
3 games (Monday-Wednesday)

Head-to-head: The Rays and Orioles played competitive games against each other in 2022. The Rays narrowly took the season series by winning 10 of 19 games and outscored the O's by just eight runs. Both clubs have significantly improved in '23 so there's a good chance more competitive games are on the way this week.

Storyline: No disrespect to the Orioles, who are 22-12 and hold the top Wild Card spot, but we have to talk about the Rays. They're off to the best start to a season since the '84 Tigers. They're leading the league with 225 runs scored and a 3.01 ERA. Practically every player putting on a Rays uniform is contributing in a major way. It's a display of total team excellence that we haven't seen in decades.

Watch out for: The top of the Rays' lineup. Yandy Díaz, Wander Franco, and Randy Arozarena have been a thoroughly dominant trio. They each rank in the top-12 in WAR among position players and are hitting a combined .316/.397/.577. O's pitchers have their hands full trying to contain baseball's most dominant top of the lineup.

Astros (17-17) at Angels (19-16)
3 games (Monday-Wednesday)

Head-to-head: The Astros went 13-6 against the Angels in both 2021 and '22. That's perhaps not surprising given the Astros were the AL champs and World Series champs in each of those seasons while the Angels averaged 75 wins in that time.

Storyline: Where will these teams go from here? The Astros are the defending World Series champions but have scuffled to a slow start mostly due to a flurry of injuries. The Angels have started strong like they did last year when they began the season 27-17 before slumping their way to a 73-win season. With fewer than five games separating the top-four teams in the AL West, the division is open for grabs right now.

Watch out for: Shohei Ohtani. Baseball's most uniquely talented player comes into the series with a 137 wRC+, a 181 ERA+, and 1.7 WAR that ranks in the top 10 among all players. After tying a career high with 13 strikeouts on the mound in his last outing, adding three hits at the plate and joining yet another illustrious club, he'll take the mound on Tuesday in a highly-anticipated matchup against Framber Valdez.

Blue Jays (21-14) at Phillies (16-19)
2 games (Tuesday-Wednesday)

Head-to-head: The Jays took five of seven games from the Phillies in 2021 and '22. The teams will play two games in Philly this week and the final two games in Toronto in August.

Storyline: Can the Phillies get on track? Despite welcoming Bryce Harper last week, it's been a sluggish start for the Phils, who snapped a six-game losing streak when they beat the Red Sox on Sunday. It's been a collective struggle on both sides of the ball; Phillies hitters are middle of the pack in runs scored while their pitchers have the fourth-worst ERA (5.03) in the Majors. This team notoriously started slowly last year before making it to the World Series so there's plenty of time to get things going.

Watch out for: Bo Bichette. Dating back to Sept. 1 of last year, Bichette has been one of the best hitters in the Majors. Only Aaron Judge and Mike Trout have topped Bichette's 182 wRC+ in that time. Bichette is leading the Majors with 49 hits in '23 and is slugging .523.

Red Sox (21-15) at Braves (24-11)
2 games (Tuesday-Wednesday)

Head-to-head: The Red Sox took three of four games from the Braves in 2021. The teams flip-flopped in '22 when the Braves went 3-1 against Boston.

Storyline: How many runs will these two offenses score? Both teams enter the series in the top 5 in runs scored, home runs, and wRC+. The Braves were expected to score a ton of runs but Boston's offense performing this well has been one of the bigger surprises of the '23 season.

Watch out for: Sean Murphy. Acquired in a trade with the A's this past offseason, Murphy leads all players with 2.3 WAR in '23. He's maintained his elite defensive skills while taking a massive step forward on the offensive side of things. Entering Sunday's game, Murphy led all hitters with a .489 expected wOBA thanks to him chasing fewer pitches and more than doubling his career barrel rate.