There will be no shortage of exciting matchups this week in the Major Leagues.
The Yankees and Orioles are not only two of the strongest teams in the American League East, but they have two of the best records in MLB and they will face each other in a crucial divisional duel these days. We’ll also have Elly de la Cruz against Paul Skenes, a battle between two division leaders, a rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series and a superstar facing his old team for the first time.
It’s only June, but there are plenty of matchups this week that will have a playoff feel.
Three games (Monday to Wednesday)
Particular series: This will be the first meeting this year between these two rivals from the National League Central Division. While the Pirates won eight of 13 games against the Reds last season, Cincinnati actually outscored Pittsburgh by four runs (57 runs scored, 53 allowed) on aggregate.
Story to follow: It’s Elly de la Cruz against Paul Skenes for the first time in the majors on Monday in Pittsburgh. De la Cruz has an impressive wRC+ of 116 with 12 home runs, 36 stolen bases and 2.8 fWAR. He’s also a sight worth watching on television – he scored from second base on a pitcher’s swingback Sunday and hit a home run – as is his counterpart Skenes. The Pirates’ dominant rookie has dazzled with a 2.43 ERA, 46 strikeouts and just six walks in six starts. It’s also De la Cruz’s first matchup against compatriot Oneil Cruz — the Pirates shortstop had season-ending surgery before De La Cruz debuted last year. Cruz is no slouch either with a 102 wRC+, 1.2 WAR and some of the hardest hits in the Statcast Era.
Pay attention to: Let’s continue with De la Cruz. The talented shortstop is on pace to hit 27 home runs and steal 82 bases, which would make him the third player in history with more than 20 home runs and more than 80 steals in the same year, joining Rickey Henderson (1985 and 1986) and Eric Davis (1986). If De la Cruz reaches the 6.3 fWAR he is on pace for, he would join Barry Larkin (1988, 1991, 1996) as the only Reds shortstops with a WAR season at that level or higher.
Three games (Tuesday to Thursday)
Particular series: The Guardians convincingly took two of three games in Seattle from April 1-3, outscoring Seattle 17-7 on aggregate and winning the final day 8-0.
Story to follow: The Guardians hitters facing the Mariners rotation is a battle between each team’s strengths. The Guardians have scored the eighth-most runs in MLB (341), after producing the fourth-fewest (662) last year. Dominican José Ramírez (wRC+ of 146) has once again led the way for Cleveland, but has had ample help from Steven Kwan (wRC+ of 191), David Fry (180) and Josh Naylor (120). The performance of Seattle’s rotation is less surprising: The Mariners’ starters had the fourth-best ERA (3.89) in 2023 and have the fourth-best (3.30) this year.
Pay attention to: Steven Kwan has done nothing but hit this year. The only thing holding him back was a hamstring injury that kept him out for most of May. Kwan leads the Major Leagues with a .398 average (min. 150 plate appearances), is slugging .545 and is walking more (8.7%) than he is striking out (7.1%). He’s been even better since he returned from the disabled list on May 31, with a striking line of .535/.600/.698 in 11 games.
Three games (Tuesday to Thursday)
Particular series: The Orioles took three of four in Baltimore from April 29 to May 2, limiting the Yankees’ feared lineup to just six runs.
Story to follow: Prepare for a battle between not only the best two teams in the American League East, but also in all of baseball. The Yankees have the best record in the Major League at 50-23 and a two-game lead over the Orioles, whose record of 47 wins and 24 losses is tied with the Phillies as the second best in MLB. There’s not much these clubs can’t do. The Yankees lead the Majors in both runs scored (371) and ERA (2.96), while the Orioles are in second place with 364 runs and an earned run average of 3.07.
Attention to: Three of the best position players will face off in this series. The Yankees have the notable duo of Aaron Judge and the Dominican Juan Soto, who rank first and second in OPS (Judge with 1.108 and Soto with 1.035). Along with the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr., Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson must compete with the Yankees’ stars for the Young Circuit Most Valuable Player award. The young Orioles star ranks second in MLB with an fWAR of 4.7, is sixth with a wRC+ of 170 and has hit 22 home runs.
Three games (Friday to Sunday)
Particular series: This is the first meeting between these two teams since the D-backs shocked the Phillies by winning the final two games of last year’s National League Championship Series in Philadelphia to advance to the World Series. The clubs also met in seven regular-season games in 2024, of which the Phillies won four.
Story to follow: The D-backs ended the Phillies’ season in Game 7 of the NLCS at Citizens Bank Park last October. That bitter ending clearly hasn’t affected the Phillies, but it’s surely on the minds of some of those players. Meanwhile, this year the D-backs have not been able to replicate the magic that took them to the Fall Classic.
Attention to: The Phillies rotation has been overwhelmingly dominant in 2024, except for Zack Wheeler’s poor outing on Sunday against the Orioles (eight earned runs and four home runs allowed). The Phillies’ starters, as a group, rank in the top three in ERA (2.99), fWAR (9.0) and FIP (3.42). Wheeler (2.0 fWAR) and Venezuelan Ranger Suárez (Big League leader with 1.77 ERA) are candidates for the Cy Young Award, while Dominican Cristopher Sánchez (2.1 fWAR) and Aaron Nola (3.48 ERA) have been as well as can be expected from a club’s 3 and 4 starters.
Two games (Friday and Saturday)
Particular series: The Dodgers completely dominated the Highway Series last year, taking all four games that were divided into two series between Los Angeles and Anaheim and outscoring the Angels 25 to 9 in runs scored.
Story to follow: Shohei Ohtani is practically the focus every time he’s on a baseball field, but that will be magnified in his first matchup against his former team. After three dominant years with the Angels from 2021 to 2023 — when he took home the AL MVP award in those years and finished second to Aaron Judge in 2022 — Ohtani signed a record $700 contract. million with the Dodgers over the winter. Although he won’t pitch until 2025 after undergoing a second Tommy John surgery, Ohtani is still a legitimate MVP candidate as a designated hitter, thanks to his .976 OPS and 3.4 fWAR. Ohtani had his second multi-homer game of the season on Sunday, the first of which he walked 451 feet.
Attention to: We already know the attention will be on Ohtani, but what about Teoscar Hernández, who was a big offseason addition and has been the Dodgers’ best hitter for more than a month? Since May 1, Hernández is hitting .260/.333/.539 and his 11 hits trail only Ohtani (12) in that period.
