Matchups

The Baltimore Orioles had to take an unwanted detour during their nine-game homestand, flying to Texas on Monday for a makeup game against the American League's best team. After dropping a one-run decision to halt a modest two-game winning streak, the Orioles return to Camden Yards to host the San Diego Padres on Tuesday in the opener of a two-game interleague series.

The New York Yankees will be looking to extract a bit of revenge when they host the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday in a rematch of a two-game interleague series from last week. The Rockies piled up 19 runs and 28 hits in taking two from the Yankees in Colorado before opening their six-game road trip by dropping three of four in Miami.

The Pittsburgh Pirates finally received a strong pitching performance and did just enough on offense to snap a five-game slide and win for the second time in 12 games. The Pirates can assure themselves a split of the four-game set when they host the San Francisco Giants in the second contest on Tuesday.

The Toronto Blue Jays will look to keep their offense percolating when they host the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday night in the first of a two-game interleague set. It will be the only series at Rogers Centre over a 13-game stretch for Toronto, which dropped two in a row in Baltimore over the weekend after winning seven of eight.

The Chicago White Sox managed to make the highest scoring offense in baseball look incredibly ordinary on Monday while snapping a three-game slide. The visiting White Sox have a strong chance to keep the Boston Red Sox’s offense down again when they send ace Chris Sale to the mound in the second of a four-game series at Fenway Park on Tuesday.

The Tampa Bay Rays suffered more than one loss in the opener of a three-game set and hope to find some positives when they visit the Cleveland Indians for the second contest on Tuesday. The Rays coughed up a lead and fell 7-4 to post their fifth straight loss on Monday in the first contest of the series and could be without two key position players for an extended period of time.

The Detroit Tigers paid $132.75 million to bring in Justin Upton in the offseason, and he showed why with a vintage performance on Monday. Upton, who homered twice including a walk-off blast in the series opener, will try to lead the Tigers to another win when they host the Seattle Mariners in the second of a four-game series on Tuesday.

The Kansas City Royals were both drinking and wearing champagne during their last visit to Citi Field, having wrapped up the second World Series title in franchise history with a five-game dismissal of the New York Mets. The Royals have regained their swagger from last season as they've won eight of their last nine contests heading into Tuesday's opener of an abbreviated two-game interleague series against the Mets.

Even in the midst of a season-best five-game winning streak, the Atlanta Braves enter Tuesday’s series opener at the Miami Marlins dealing with bad news. The team with baseball’s worst record lost rookie sparkplug Mallex Smith – fifth in the National League with 14 stolen bases – in Sunday’s victory at the Mets, a pitch fracturing his left thumb and sidelining him indefinitely.

Colby Lewis took a no-hitter into the ninth inning in his last outing and looks to remain unbeaten when the Texas Rangers host the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday in the opener of their three-game series. Lewis settled for his 10th career complete game in the victory over Oakland and has given up just two runs and five hits in 17 innings over his last two starts.

If the St. Louis Cardinals are going to catch the Chicago Cubs in the National League Central race, they’ll probably have to do it by dominating the head-to-head matchup. The Cardinals will try for a second straight win over the Cubs – and their seventh consecutive road victory – when the rivals square off Tuesday in the middle contest of their three-game series.

The Houston Astros are looking to record their sixth victory in seven games and reach .500 for the first time since April 6 when they host the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday in the middle contest of a three-game set. Houston won its season opener against the New York Yankees before dropping its next three games and has been making the uphill climb all season.

The Philadelphia Phillies are in a deep decline and look to end a seven-game losing streak when they visit the even more woeful Minnesota Twins in Tuesday's opener of a three-game series. Minnesota owns the worst record (21-48) in the majors while Philadelphia is just 6-24 since being seven games above .500.

The Milwaukee Brewers make their first visit to Oakland in 14 years when they limp into the Coliseum to meet the Athletics on Tuesday in the first contest of a two-game interleague series. Milwaukee (31-39) is 1-6 on its nine-game trip through California after dropping the last three contests of a four-game set at Dodger Stadium while Oakland (28-41) is 2-5 on a nine-game homestand and scored five runs in its last four games.

Justin Turner has located the power switch and ignited the Los Angeles Dodgers' offense in the process. After belting his fourth homer in as many outings, Turner carries an eight-game hitting streak into the second contest of the three-game series against the visiting Washington Nationals on Tuesday.