How tough will the 13-0 Rays be for the Blue Jays to handle?

Sitting at 8-5, the Toronto Blue Jays should be pleased with how their season has started.

Despite their solid record, the Blue Jays are already five games back in the AL East race and they haven't played nearly as well as the division leaders: the 13-0 Tampa Bay Rays.

Tampa Bay is in the midst of a season-opening winning streak that's tied for the longest in modern MLB history, and they've come by those wins honestly. Their run differential (+71) is 46 better than any other team in the majors, and only four other squads have scored 71 runs total.

Just one — the Los Angeles Dodgers — has scored 80 runs while Tampa Bay has cashed 101. The Rays have beat up on unimpressive competition thus far, but the magnitude of their dominance cannot be ignored.

Plenty of teams are capable of putting up a strong record against teams that project to finish below .500. But there's a difference between a strong record and a perfect record — and there's a difference between winning and dominance.

With the Blue Jays set to host the Rays over the weekend, we thought we'd take a look at what makes this Tampa Bay team so special, and whether there are hidden weaknesses for Toronto to exploit.

What is driving the Rays' dominance?

It would be reductive to say everything. It also wouldn't be inaccurate. The Rays lead the majors in position-player fWAR (5.6) and pitching fWAR (3.0).

On the hitting side, they lead the majors in home runs (32) and slugging (.576) by massive margins, but selling out for power isn't costing them in the contact department as they also possess MLB's third-lowest strikeout rate (19.0%)

From a pitching standpoint, the Rays have the league's best ERA, driven by top-five strikeout (26.8%) and walk rates (6.8%). Their top three starters have allowed a combined four earned runs on the season in 46 innings, and their bullpen is packed with hard throwers with all manner of nasty stuff.

The only thing that's more mediocre than excellent about the Rays thus far is their base running, as they rank 14th in MLB in both stolen bases and BsR.

So, where are the weaknesses?

Statistically there aren't any, but this team isn't perfect from a personnel standpoint. The part of the club that looks least impressive on paper is the bottom half of the lineup.

The top four the team most often deploys — Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe, Randy Arozarena and Wander Franco — is menacing, especially with Franco looking like he's arrived as a superstar-level performer.

Below that are a bunch of players who have produced early in 2023 but lack compelling track records. The Rays' most common 5-6-7-8-9 hitters against right-handed pitchers have combined for a 146 wRC+ so far this season, but none of them has entered 2023 with a career mark over 104.

There may be a true breakout star in the group, but chances are these guys will come back to earth.

It's also clear the pitching has received some good luck. While the team's ERA is a ridiculous 2.23, its FIP is a slightly more human 2.87 due to the staff's .250 BABIP allowed.

The 5.7% HR/FB the team has conceded also looks awfully low. As a result the club's xFIP — an ERA estimator that assumes an average amount of opponents' fly balls will clear the wall — sits at 3.69.

Where does that leave the Blue Jays?

It would be tough to argue that Toronto is a better team than Tampa Bay right now, but the Rays aren't unbeatable. Their lineup is due for a cooldown and even an excellent pitching staff can't keep going at this pace.

There's plenty of room for Tampa Bay to experience some regression and still produce elite results, but the Rays are about to face their first true test of the season in Toronto.