On paper, at least, a series featuring two of the five MLB teams who have reached the 40-win mark would seem to be appointment viewing. And yet, when you realize the teams in question are the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays — who kick off a three-game set at Chavez Ravine on Monday night — it’s hard to know exactly how to feel.

Dodgers clash provides the Rays with a make-or-break moment

It was a magical start to the season for the Rays, who jumped out to the second-best record in baseball after a win at Yankee Stadium on May 22. Pegged for last place in the AL East on Opening Day, they were suddenly the class of the AL.

There were warning signs under the hood, though. The offense didn’t have much beyond Yandy Diaz, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero, and their preposterous run of luck in one-run and extra-inning games was bound to turn at some point. Sure enough, that point came a few weeks ago: Tampa has gone just 7-12 since, including a 5-7 mark in the month of June.

The runs have indeed run dry. The starting rotation, so great early in the year, is facing hard innings limits on guys like Shane McClanahan and converted closer Griffin Jax. They’ve ceded first place in the division to the Yankees … just in time to start a set with the biggest bad in baseball at the moment. Will this be a week in which Tampa defies the doubters one more time and proves they’re for real? Or will the tailspin continue, and a hot start will fade into a mediocre summer?

How they stack up against the Dodgers will tell us a lot about this team’s staying power — and whether this is a potential World Series preview or another case of haves vs. have-nots.

The juiciest (plausible) World Series matchups, ranked

4. Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Tampa Bay Rays

I mean, just imagine the narratives. The two-time defending champs, the team that has dropped more than a billion in free agency over the past three years, faces off against the poster child of small-market baseball — just a couple months before the CBA expires and plunges us into a labor war with competitive balance at the center of it.

If the Dodgers were to roll here, you can hear the cries already, as fans from Tampa to Pittsburgh to Cincinnati (or, more accurately, their owners) demand the institution of a salary cap in order to curb the first dynasty of the 21st century. If the Rays somehow pull off one of the more miraculous upsets in sports history, well, how exactly is Rob Manfred going to turn around and claim that small markets can’t possibly compete in the current climate?

3. Atlanta Braves vs. New York Yankees

Maybe this is just the elder Millennial in me, but seeing these two old rivals square off on the sport’s biggest stage would pluck at my heartstrings. And don’t get it twisted: Both Atlanta and New York still remember, and the disdain still runs deep.

Of course, the fact that these are two of the deepest lineups in the game — when healthy, at least — doesn’t hurt. And we’re still waiting on Ronald Acuña Jr. to leave his mark on the World Series after he missed the team’s last title run in 2021. This might not have quite as much juice as the next two matchups on our list, but from a pure baseball perspective, it’d be awfully fun.

2. Milwaukee Brewers vs. Seattle Mariners

Sure, it might not be the matchup Manfred dreams of, but come on: two of the five franchises that have yet to win the World Series going at it sure seems like a recipe for an instant classic. Milwaukee has been just once before, losing a seven-game heartbreaker back in 1982. The Mariners, meanwhile, might be the single most snake-bitten franchise in the league — and the only one without so much as an appearance in the Fall Classic.

It would also, it should be noted, be a dynamite series on the field. Jacob Misiorowski getting his first taste of the World Series? Julio Rodriguez inevitably robbing a homer? Two absolutely raucous home environments? Yes please.

1. Los Angeles Dodgers vs. New York Yankees

Roll your eyes all you want, but you know you’d tune in, and you know you’d be dying to know how the rematch goes. Round one left such deep scars that this Yankees core is still trying to get over it, the ghost of Game 5’s collapse still haunting everyone from Aaron Judge to Aaron Boone to Gerrit Cole. We don’t know how many more bites at the apple Judge is going to get — will he finally be able to get over the hump, or will the Dodgers once again prove too much to overcome?

This might be a lose-lose outcome for much of the country, but viewed differently, it’s also a win-win; no matter what, one of the most hateable franchises in MLB will be humbled and denied a shot at making history.

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