The Minnesota Twins are on the periphery of the American League postseason race with the trade deadline approaching, three games out of the final wild-card position.

Absorbing three lopsided road losses in a three-day span, most recently a 13-4 mauling by the Cleveland Guardians on Monday, has not helped Minnesota’s chances.

Twins left-hander Kendry Rojas (1-1, 2.79 ERA) will take on Guardians lefty Parker Messick (8-5, 2.73) in the second contest of their four-game series in Cleveland on Tuesday.

Minnesota has been outscored 29-7 during its losing streak, which began with two defeats to the Chicago Cubs by a combined 16-3 margin immediately after winning seven of nine games.

The misery continued Monday, when All-Star pitcher Joe Ryan gave up a modern MLB record-tying six home runs over four innings. The Guardians clubbed seven total homers, tying their home franchise mark.

“It’s definitely frustrating and not the way you want to start a series against this team,” said Ryan, who is 1-3 over his last five starts while being the subject of trade speculation. “They beat me to the spot more times than I got them.

“It’s a tough one, right, because I’m the one that’s wearing it. It’s definitely all on me.”

While Minnesota’s bullpen has been borderline disastrous — with the exception of current closer Yoendrys Gomez — its starters have ranked in the middle of the pack in the AL all season.

That hasn’t been the case in their last three games, however, with Ryan following poor outings by Taj Bradley and Zebby Matthews, combining to allow 21 earned runs in just 12 innings for a 15.75 ERA while being tagged with three losses.

“As good as our starting pitching has been, we’ve had a lull,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “The balls were all in the middle of the plate, that’s what I saw from Joe. The way the whole night went, it’s encapsulated by the balls left over the plate.”

Rojas has made six relief appearances and two starts — the latter both no-decisions with a 1.50 ERA over six innings — since making his major league debut on April 22. He has a 1-1 record and 6.75 ERA in two bullpen outings against the Guardians.

Cleveland is one game behind the first-place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central while Minnesota sits five games back in third. The Guardians have split four contests coming out of the All-Star break.

Rhys Hoskins and rookie Petey Halpin each had two of the team’s seven homers in the series opener while Brayan Rocchio, Travis Bazzana and Patrick Bailey also went deep on a warm evening that was conducive to hitting.

“Homers are always cool, and we all try to be the guy that starts that contagiousness,” said Hoskins, who is three homers shy of 200 in his career. “A lot of the pitches were in the middle of the plate, and you can’t miss those in this league.”

Messick, like Ryan, worked a scoreless inning in the All-Star Game that the AL won 4-0. The rookie has pitched against the Twins twice in his 26-game career, posting a 1-0 record with 16 strikeouts and a 2.45 ERA in 11 innings.

“It was really important for the team to get off to a good start against a division rival,” said Tanner Bibee, the winning pitcher Monday. “And I feel like we did it pretty well.”

–Field Level Media

Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s power has been a key to the New York Yankees’ past two victories.

And after the best game of Chisholm’s inconsistent season, the Yankees will seek a third straight win Tuesday night when they host the Pittsburgh Pirates, though heavy rain is expected for the New York area.

New York is 6-2 in its past eight games, and Chisholm has four of his 16 homers in that span. He hit a tie-breaking homer to left field off Evan Phillips in the eighth inning to send the Yankees to a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the nightcap of Sunday’s doubleheader before recording his 10th career multi-homer game in Monday’s 8-5 victory over the Pirates.

Chisholm heads into Tuesday hitting .368 (7-for-19) in his past five games. He slugged a three-run homer in the first inning Monday and a go-ahead, two-run homer in the third after getting a pep talk from teammates.

“He’s capable of that,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “When he gets it rolling, he’s capable of big things.”

Chisholm is hitting .228 and is third on the Yankees in homers behind injured star Aaron Judge and Ben Rice, who is batting .378 during a career-high 12-game hitting streak. Chisholm also is hitting .260 (13-for-50) in 14 games this month after hitting .177 in his previous 25.

“I felt like I was trying to overdo it, trying to hit a five-run home run with nobody on base,” Chisholm said. “Realizing that we do this as a team and everybody play their game because none of us are Aaron Judge.”

Pittsburgh, meanwhile, is 8-4 in its past 12 games and hopes to see more big swings from rookie Esmerlyn Valdez, who hit a 431-foot two-run homer that gave the Pirates a brief lead Monday. He has at least one RBI in eight straight games.

Valdez is the first Pirate with an RBI and an extra-base hit in eight games in a row since Hall of Famer Willie Stargell in 1971. He also is hitting .369 with 11 of his 13 homers and 29 RBIs over his past 23 games since June 19.

“It felt good to be next to those names,” Valdez said through an interpreter.

Despite the short outing from All-Star Braxton Ashcraft on Monday, the Pirates should be well-situated in their bullpen if needed on Tuesday. Wilber Dotel and Brandon Eisert combined on four innings before Dennis Santana got upset at Jose Caballero for taking too long in the batter’s box, triggering a brief benches-clearing incident.

“Dennis just got frustrated by something,” Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly said. “Thankfully it didn’t end up being a big deal.”

Bubba Chandler (3-8, 4.77 ERA), who is 2-2 with a 4.68 ERA in his past eight games, will start for the Pirates on Tuesday. Pittsburgh is 5-3 in those games. In his most recent start, the right-hander allowed two runs on five hits in 4 2/3 innings while throwing 97 pitches in a no-decision during the Pirates’ 3-2 home win over the Milwaukee Brewers on July 11.

He has never faced the Yankees.

Right-hander Will Warren (7-4, 4.03 ERA), who has struggled at times recently after a quick start to the season, will start for the Yankees.

Warren is 0-3 with a 5.56 ERA in his past seven starts since getting off to a 7-1 start. He has allowed two runs or less in two of his past three starts, however, including a no-decision at Washington in which he allowed one run on four hits in five innings on July 12.

Warren has no decisions in two career outings vs. the Pirates, with a 12.60 ERA over five innings.

Warren has a 12.60 ERA in a pair of appearances against the Pirates.

–Field Level Media

The Boston Red Sox are riding a tremendous wave of momentum entering Tuesday night’s matchup against the visiting Baltimore Orioles.

Caleb Durbin’s solo home run with two outs in the eighth inning propelled Boston to a 6-5 triumph over Baltimore on Monday. It was the 14th consecutive victory and 19th in the last 21 games for the Red Sox.

Durbin called it the biggest hit of his career.

“Man, the electricity on that one is probably top of the list,” he said. “Just being able to come through for the guys and get the lead there was big.

“Late in the game, two outs especially, trying to get on second base at the very least. Trying to do some damage. If there’s a spot to try to let it eat, it’s there.

“We were digging, right? We were grinding there early on. You keep going knowing that there’s opportunities and there’s moments ahead like this, and there’s going to be plenty more. It’s a boring answer, but (the key is) keeping the same approach and keep moving forward every single day.”

Boston is averaging 5.9 runs per game during its 14-game winning streak, which is the second-longest such streak in team history. The Red Sox won 15 games in a row in 1946.

Boston’s starting pitchers have a 2.63 ERA during the streak, while the relievers are at 1.15.

“That was unbelievable,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said of Monday’s victory. “It was a heck of an effort. Had to come back multiple times and kept fighting back. It was a heck of a win.

Boston trailed 1-0 in the first inning, 4-3 in the sixth and 5-4 in the seventh.

“They’re giving everything they got,” Tracy said. “They’re executing. They’re doing a great job.”

The loss ended Baltimore’s seven-game winning streak. Durbin’s home run came against Tyler Wells.

“Credit to (Durbin),” Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said. “He put a good swing on it. Wells has been outstanding for us. All of our bullpen guys have been answering the bell. One pitch you just want back, but Wells has been outstanding.

“Great back-and-forth game. It stinks we didn’t come out on the right side, (but) it was a great atmosphere.”

Baltimore committed four errors in the loss, including two when Boston scored two runs in the third inning. Two of Boston’s six runs were unearned.

“You look at the errors and it’s rough, but it kind of just shows us that that’s a game we could have won and probably should have,” said Orioles second baseman Jeremiah Jackson, who committed one error.

“Two really good teams going at it. We can compete with anybody.”

The Orioles will send right-hander Kyle Bradish (6-9, 3.61 ERA) to the mound on Tuesday for the second contest of the three-game series. Bradish is 1-6 with a 6.75 ERA in 10 career starts against Boston.

Tracy said left-hander Ranger Suarez (4-3, 3.15 ERA) will be activated from the 15-day injured list to start on Tuesday. Suarez sustained a groin injury during a July 5 start against the Los Angeles Angels.

He’s 0-2 with a 4.32 ERA in four career starts against Baltimore.

–Field Level Media