Five key things to watch this week

1. Can the Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals increase their division leads?

The Astros enter the week on a 10-game winning streak and lead the AL West by seven games while the Cardinals have won six a row -- after losingAdam Wainwright -- and have a 4.5-game lead over the Chicago Cubs, the only other team in either division over .500. The Cardinals host the Cubs on Monday night on ESPN in the first of a four-game series and then go to Pittsburgh for three games. With a big week, St. Louis is going to be comfortable in the Central.

Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday have been impressive, with Carpenter playing at an MVP level, hitting .365/.431/.656, with 14 doubles and four home runs, lining extra-base hits all over the field like he did two years. Carpenter has talked about being a little more aggressive, especially on the first pitch. He hasn't really been more aggressive on the first pitch -- he has only five first-pitch balls in play (30 last season) -- but his overall swing rate has increased from 32.8 percent to 36.8 percent, similar to his 37.1 percent rate in 2013 (and his swing rate at pitches in the strike zone is 9 percent higher). So while this may lead to fewer walks, so far it has helped his average and power numbers. Holliday also has been more aggressive on swinging at strikes, with a career-high swing rate at pitches in the zone, and while he has only one home run, he's hitting .321 with a .455 OBP, giving St. Louis two of the top 10 OBP guys in the majors. His .414 BABIP is unsustainable, but you're seeing a veteran adapt his game.

Coming off a four-game sweep of the Mariners, FanGraphs now projects the Astros as the division favorite (albeit in a tight four-team race). They increase their odds with another big week as they host the bad Rangers for three games and then travel to Anaheim for four against the Angels. The Astros lead the majors in home runs and strikeouts but the big key has been the pitching staff that is second in the AL in fewest runs per game. Dallas Keuchel and his 0.73 ERA get the week started on Monday.

2. Boston Red Sox starting rotation.

Look, even with the Yankees off to a 16-9 start, the AL East is wide open. Still, this feels like an important week for the Red Sox. With a 5.66 rotation ERA -- only Toronto's is higher -- the Red Sox have to start thinking about some alternatives if . For now, since trades are almost never made in May, that would be mean dipping into the Triple-A rotation, where Eduardo Rodriguez (1.82 ERA, 22 strikeouts and two walks in 24.2 innings) probably gets first crack.

Then again ... maybe the rotation isn't so horrible. While it has a 5.66 ERA, it has a 3.84 FIP, in part because their percentage of runners left on base 60 percent, easily worst in the majors. Joe Kelly and Clay Buchholz both have excellent strikeout-to-walk ratios and haven't been bombed with home runs yet have ERAs over 5.00. Expect better results from those two and Rick Porcello moving forward.

3. Andrew McCutchen's knee.

The Pittsburgh Pirates aren't scoring many runs and the missing bat of their MVP candidate is a big reason why. He missed one game, on April 11, with a sore knee, which also bothered him in spring training. Given his .193 average and five extra-base hits, you wonder how much the knee is affecting his swing. Last season, he did go homerless in May but still hit .310. Over the previous three seasons, he has had only three months where he hit below .280, and the lowest of those was .246 in April 2013. ESPN keeps track of "hard-hit average" (percentage of balls deemed to have been hit hard) and this is the number that has to worry about Pirates fans:

2013: .264

2014: .229

2015: .156

4. The rematch: Kansas City Royals at Detroit Tigers.

They split their four-game series in Kansas City and will play a three-game set in Detroit this weekend, including a must-see Yordano Ventura versus David Priceshowdown on Friday. The Royals have thrived an offense so far thanks to a high-average approach. But they're 12th in the AL in home runs and 14th in walks. They're hitting .296 and the lower-power, few-walk approach can work as long as the hits keep falling, but .296 would be the highest team average since the 1950 Red Sox hit .302.

5. Pitching matchup of the week: Matt Harvey vs. Cole Hamels (Friday)

If you don't catch the Ventura-Price game, this one is interesting as well. Harvey is 5-0 in five starts with a 2.41 ERA, and he's always appointment viewing. You actually get the feeling he's still battling some inconsistency, as would be expected coming his missing season. His slider has been sharp some games, not as sharp some others. The Mets lost a little of their momentum in losing three of four to the Nationals, so we'll see if they get it back (although they oddly have off days on both on Monday and Thursday). As for Hamels, every start feels like an audition of sorts. He's 1-3 with a 4.14 ERA and leads the NL with 19 walks (in 37 innings). The walk rate is more problematic than the eight home runs allowed. It looks like the issue there is he hasn't been throwing his changeup in the strike zone often enough -- 49 percent a year ago, 39 percent so far. Because of that, hitters are sitting on the fastball; he's allowed seven home runs on fastballs, compared to eight all of 2014.

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