There's something glorious about Friday night hitting and a full slate of MLB games waiting to bring the drama. It's like NFL RedZone, but for three straight days. This weekend, we're through the initial adrenaline surge of Opening Week and ready to hit the ground running, as rivalries are renewed and the league's best jockey for early position.
Why even waste time on an intro? These are the five best series to tune into this weekend across Major League Baseball.
5. Dodgers @ Cubs
We'd be remiss to not include this matchup of playoff hopefuls, if not only for the fact that it might break all-time records for MLB ratings in Japan. We'll see both Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga take the mound at Wrigley Field, while Shohei Ohtani and Seiya Suzuki will each look to build on their home runs from Wednesday and spark the offense.
There's still much, much more to get excited about in this series as well. Bobby Miller takes the hill Friday night in his quest to become a true ace. Gavin Stone and Jordan Wicks will also look for quality starts as they try to establish themselves as permanent starters in their rookie seasons. Cody Bellinger squares off against the team that developed him into an MVP. It's all going down in the Friendly Confines on the North Side of Chicago this weekend.
4. Orioles @ Pirates
Would this matchup be a lot more entertaining if Jackson Holliday and Paul Skenes were taking the field for their respective big league clubs this weekend? Sure, but at this point, it would be easy enough to argue every Norfolk Tides game should be on lists like these.
But back to MLB for a second. The Pittsburgh Pirates are 6-1, tied for the best record in Major League Baseball! As a franchise, they're trying to mirror the trajectory the Baltimore Orioles are already on, breaking through the doldrums of last place finishes with a surge of highly-touted young guns. So what better time to prove that they're on the right track by taking down those same Orioles in their first series at PNC Park in the new season?
3. Diamondbacks @ Braves
This is just good clean fun. The defending National League champs visit the team with the best record in the regular season in 2023, in a matchup that produced one of the most memorable instant classics last July.
Yes, on July 18, 2023, the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Atlanta Braves by a whopping 16-13 margin, tying for the most combined runs scored in any single game across the league last season. Austin Riley and Christian Walker each hit a pair of home runs, the Diamondbacks got late heroics from Geraldo Perdomo and Dominic Canzone (!!) and nobody seemed to be able to pitch effectively.
So who's to say that can't happen again this weekend? When two of the more explosive offenses in MLB take the field at the same time, there's always the potential for fireworks.
2. Blue Jays @ Yankees
If the New York Yankees really are back to Evil Empire form (rest in peace, Larry Lucchino), then we'll know it this weekend. With their beloved Yanks coming back to the Bronx after a 6-1 road trip, the crowd at The Stadium this weekend is sure to be rowdy and out for blood.
Quietly, though, the Toronto Blue Jays have been unafraid of the Bronx of late. They went 4-2 against the Yankees in New York a season ago, led by two gems from ace Kevin Gausman and homers galore from George Springer, Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Best of all, former Blue Jays ace Marcus Stroman takes to the mound for his hometown Yankees for the first time at home in the series opener. We'll know much more about Stroman and the rest of the new-look Yankees after their first test in the gauntlet that is the AL East in 2024.
1. Astros @ Rangers
C'mon, you didn't really think there was another option for the top spot, did you? Less than six months renewed from the Texas Rangers' epic seven-game takedown of the reigning champ Houston Astros, it's Texas that wears the crown as the Lone Star State rivalry kicks off in the new season.
We've got the stars for each team rolling in to the series hot, with home runs from Corey Seager, Yordan Alvarez and Jose Altuve in each of their most recent games. There's added intrigue from the new faces, with Josh Hader looming in the Houston bullpen and Wyatt Langford looking to burst onto the scene with his first homer. Then there's Adolis García looking to prove he's MLB's greatest Astros killer after his five-homer, 17.2% championship win probability added performance in last year's ALCS.
And as a special treat, it's a four-game series that wraps all the way around to Monday night, so these teams will really have the measure of each other by the time that fourth game finishes. Expect playoff intensity and perhaps some ruffled feathers in this clash of Texas titans.
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