A week on from the close of April and the early-season picture across MLB has sharpened further. The contenders pulled away. The strugglers stayed stuck. And one team — the Chicago Cubs — quietly assembled the most impressive seven days of any club in baseball, taking control of an NL Central race that was supposed to be tight all summer.
For Australian fans tuning in, this is the week MLB started to feel less like April fluff and more like the form lines that will carry through to October. Don’t forget, MLB baseball can be followed across multiple platforms in Australia, all outlined in our comprehensive How to Watch Guide.
Big Picture: The Top Tier Holds, the Cubs Crash It
By the close of play on Tuesday May 5, the same three names sat above everyone else in baseball — the Braves, the Yankees and the Cubs, all with 23 or more wins and run differentials that match the eye test. The change from a week ago: it’s the Cubs, not the Dodgers, who slot in as the third heavyweight after a week that included a series sweep of Milwaukee and a road statement against the Cardinals.
In the middle, the NL Central remains the most congested division in baseball — but with new tenants at the top. The Cardinals and Reds shuffled places behind Chicago, while Pittsburgh and Milwaukee stayed in the conversation without quite landing a punch. At the bottom, the Mets, Phillies, Angels and Astros all continued the slide that defined late April, with the Angels now sitting at 13-23 and looking every bit a team in genuine trouble.
American League: Yankees Stretch Out
AL East: New York Builds a Buffer
The New York Yankees used the past week to do exactly what division leaders are meant to do — quietly add wins while the chasing pack treads water. New York moved to 24-11, opening a two-game gap on Tampa Bay and stretching the lead from third place out to seven full games. The Yankees’ rotation has been the AL’s most reliable, and the bullpen continues to convert close-game leverage into wins.
Tampa Bay remain the only AL East team capable of pushing New York, but the Rays’ margin for error is shrinking. Toronto, Baltimore and Boston all now sit at 16-19 or worse — three teams whose preseason expectations have already collided with reality. Boston in particular continues to leak runs late, and the bullpen issues from late April have not been solved.
AL Central: Still No One Wants It
The AL Central remains the most competitive race for being mediocre in all of baseball. Detroit and Cleveland finished the week tied at 18-18, with Chicago a single game back at 17-18. The Tigers’ road form remains the only thing keeping them from breaking out — Detroit have been excellent at home and merely competitive everywhere else.
Kansas City and Minnesota continue to drift. The Twins are now 15-20 and have not had a winning week since opening day; for a team that entered the season with playoff expectations, the alarm bells should already be ringing.
AL West: Athletics Hold On, Angels Crater
The Athletics continued their unlikely run at the top of the AL West, holding off Seattle and Texas through another competitive week. Their 18-16 record is built on the same recipe — solid pitching, opportunistic offence and a knack for winning games they should lose by one.
Seattle moved past Texas into second on the back of a strong week from their starters, but the bigger story in the West is the freefall happening in Anaheim. The Los Angeles Angels are now 13-23, the worst record in the American League, and a team that started the year insisting it was a contender is now openly being asked when the rebuild begins. Houston, despite plenty of offensive firepower, sit at 14-22 — the pitching has not held up and a roster issue is now becoming a roster problem.
National League: Cubs Crash the Top Three
NL East: Atlanta Untouchable
The Atlanta Braves are the best team in baseball and getting better. Now 25-11, with the largest division lead in MLB at nine full games, Atlanta have used the past week to put the NL East to bed for the foreseeable future. The pitching staff continues to lead the league in ERA, the lineup is producing one through nine, and the eye test matches the numbers in a way no other team can quite claim.
The rest of the NL East is, frankly, embarrassing. Washington, Miami and Philadelphia are all 16-19 or worse. The New York Mets sit at 13-22 — still the worst record in the National League, with no bottom yet visible. The conversations about manager and front office accountability that started last week have only grown louder.
NL Central: The Cubs Take Charge
The most interesting division in baseball got more interesting. The Chicago Cubs went 6-1 over the past week, climbing to 23-12 and stretching their lead in the NL Central to two games over the Cardinals and three over the Reds. The Cubs have been the most consistent NL team since mid-April — solid starting pitching, a deep bullpen and a top-of-the-order that produces traffic every night. They are no longer the surprise package; they are now a top-three team in the National League.
St. Louis surged into second at 21-14 on the back of a strong week against weak opposition, while Cincinnati slipped to third despite still owning a winning record. Pittsburgh and Milwaukee both stayed in the mix without making real ground. With four teams within five games of first, the NL Central remains the most rewarding division in baseball for a fan who likes a tight race.
NL West: Dodgers Reset, Padres Still Right There
The Los Angeles Dodgers had a quiet but solid week and now sit at 22-13 — second in the NL behind Atlanta but firmly atop the West. The pitching, anchored by another big week from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, remains elite. Shohei Ohtani continues to do Shohei Ohtani things at the plate, on pace for 50 home runs once again.
San Diego refuse to go away. The Padres are 20-14 and have been within two games of the Dodgers for the entire month of May so far. Arizona remains hovering around .500, while the Giants and Rockies continue to play themselves further out of contention. San Francisco’s offence still cannot generate runs in the late innings; Colorado’s pitching continues to be Colorado’s pitching.
The Takeaway Heading Deeper Into May
One week ago, three teams looked like the genuine class of MLB. A week later it’s still three teams — but the Cubs have replaced the Dodgers as the third heavyweight, and the gap between the top three and the rest is widening rather than tightening. For the chasing pack, the next ten days are crunch time. The interleague schedule begins ramping up, travel becomes a real factor, and the teams that haven’t found an identity yet won’t have many more chances to do so before June.
For Australian fans, the MLB calendar is also entering its sweet spot. May games skew toward 9:00am to 12:00pm AEST tip-offs, the World Series picture starts to get its first real shape, and the every-day rhythm of baseball — 162 games, the marathon stretches in May and June — becomes the reason MLB is the most addictive sport to follow remotely. A run differential at the end of May is rarely a fluke.
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