Former All-Star pitcher Hunter Greene is set to make his season debut Saturday night for the Cincinnati Reds as they look to even their weekend series against the visiting Baltimore Orioles.

The return of the Reds’ ace from the injured list comes as the team is struggling to stay within striking distance of a postseason berth. After Friday’s 3-0 loss, Cincinnati has a 40-47 record, the fourth-worst mark in the National League, and is seven games behind the St. Louis Cardinals for the third and final wild-card spot.

Despite the Reds winning just three of their last 10 games and playing sub-.400 ball over the past two months, Greene told reporters in the locker room before Friday’s game that he still believes they can make a run.

“There’s too many ebbs and flows of the season, and you guys have seen our team and other teams get really hot,” said the right-hander, who had surgery in March to remove bone chips from his right elbow. “We know that that’s our ability.”

When healthy, Greene, 26, has been one of the National League’s best pitchers over the last two seasons, posting a 16-9 record with a 2.76 ERA over 258 innings with 301 strikeouts. However, he made only 45 starts as he lost time to a groin strain and elbow injuries.

Greene made two starts for Triple-A Louisville to prepare for his return. In his last start, he threw 6 1/3 innings in a 3-0 win, retiring the last 16 batters he faced while throwing 82 pitches.

However, Greene will need support from his offense. In their last 10 games, the Reds have hit just .232 and averaged less than four runs per game. Their .220 average this season with runners in scoring position is the worst in the majors.

Elly De La Cruz has been a bright spot in the Reds’ lineup since he returned from a hamstring injury late last month. He went 1-for-3 Friday to extend his hitting streak to six games.

Greene has faced Baltimore twice in his career. He’s 0-1, with a 5.19 ERA. Last April in Baltimore, he lasted just three innings and gave up five runs in a 9-5 loss.

The Orioles had only four hits in their victory on Friday, but one of them was a two-run homer by Samuel Basallo in the third inning. It was enough to get the win as Trevor Rogers threw five shutout innings.

Baltimore has won four of its last 10 games. Orioles pitchers have allowed a total of three runs in those victories. Rogers said he believes the staff can take it up a notch as its rotation gets healthier.

“That’s what it’s going to take for us to go on that run,” he said.

Brandon Young (6-2, 3.11 ERA) will start for Baltimore on Saturday. The right-hander has won three of his last five starts.

Young also faced the Reds in the April game last year. He lasted only four innings, allowing three runs on seven hits, with three walks and three strikeouts.

Baltimore’s Taylor Ward reached base twice Friday with a hit and a walk in four plate appearances. While he’s only hitting .251 through 88 games, his .379 on-base percentage ranks among the top 10 in the AL.

–Field Level Media

Atlanta will try to add to the New York Mets’ misery on Saturday night when the host Braves send ace Chris Sale to the mound in the second game of the teams’ four-game series.

The Braves won the opener 5-3 on Friday to hand New York its 11th loss in 13 games and drop the Mets a season-high 16 games behind the Braves in the National League East. Atlanta evened the season series at 2-2.

Sale (8-6, 2.10 ERA) will oppose New York’s Sean Manaea (1-3, 4.71) in a contest of veteran left-handers.

The Braves have given the 37-year-old Sale additional rest in an attempt to keep him fresh for the stretch run. He last pitched on Sunday and had nine days and seven days between his two previous starts. When pitching with six-plus days rest during his career, Sale is 27-16 with a 2.61 ERA in 64 starts.

“These longer layoffs, they’re not injury related, so I’m able to get a lot of throwing done in between these days,” Sale said. “So I’ve been able to get on the mound two, three, even four times in between starts. I think getting on the mound more has been able to dial in.”

In his most recent outing, which came against the San Francisco Giants on June 28, Sale worked six innings and allowed two runs (one earned) on eight hits and one walk. He struck out 10, his second double-digit total of the season, but was charged with the loss in the 3-2 San Francisco win.

In five career starts against the Mets, Sale is 2-0 with a 1.97 ERA. He did not face them when the teams met most recently, from June 12-14.

Manaea, 34, will make his fifth start since being moved into the rotation. In his four starts, he is 0-2 with a 4.05 ERA. In his most recent outing on Monday against Toronto, he took a 2-1 loss after pitching 5 2/3 innings and allowing two runs on three hits and two walks, striking out four.

“I feel like a pitcher,” Manaea said. “I can go in and out with sinkers, cutters. I am definitely not throwing as hard as I used to, so I’m trying to just get guys out however I can.”

Manaea faced the Braves on June 13 and was the losing pitcher in the 3-1 game. He worked six innings and allowed two runs on four hits with six strikeouts. In four career appearances (three starts) against the Braves, Manaea is 0-2 with a 3.38 ERA.

On Friday, the Atlanta offense showed more signs of emerging from a slump as the Braves hit four home runs — two by Matt Olson, who ended a 16-game homerless streak. The Braves have scored five runs in three straight games.

“You want to be multi-dimensional, but we love homers and we’re capable of doing that,” Atlanta manager Walt Weiss said. “It’s been a part of our identity here for a long time. We needed to win that game. so it’s good to see the power show up.”

New York’s Carson Benge had a single on Friday to extend his hitting streak to eight games and his on-base streak to 15. But reliever A.J. Minter allowed one of Olson’s home run to end his streak of consecutive scoreless appearances at 25 games, dating to last season.

The Mets might have scored a minor victory by forcing Atlanta closer Raisel Iglesias to throw 22 pitches in the ninth inning. That could limit his availability over the weekend.

–Field Level Media

The offensive fireworks that often have accompanied Tomoyuki Sugano’s starts for Colorado this season might be appropriate on Independence Day when the Rockies host the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night in Denver.

Jake McCarthy had a leadoff home run and subsequent grand slam in the Rockies’ 15-3 victory over the Giants in the series opener on Friday. It was Colorado’s third win over San Francisco in four tries this season.

All four meetings have been high scoring, with the Rockies totaling 31 runs in their three wins, while the Giants put up 19 in their lone victory. All four games have been at Coors Field.

Sugano (8-4, 4.80 ERA) went unbeaten in five June starts, going 4-0 with a 6.58 ERA. But the Rockies gave him 48 runs of support to help make the five Rockies wins happen.

The right-hander has allowed multiple home runs in four of his 16 starts this season.

He’s faced the Giants just once in his two-year MLB career. He served up a homer to Rafael Devers among 10 hits and seven runs in 3 1/3 innings in a 13-2 loss for the Baltimore Orioles in San Francisco on Aug. 31.

The Rockies have won three games in a row, scoring 35 runs. Mickey Moniak, who contributed two hits to Friday’s 18-hit assault, said the offensive approach comes from manager Warren Schaeffer.

“Instilling a mindset comes from Schaeff, from just knowing that we can bang and we can do damage, one through nine,” Moniak said. “And the four guys on the bench are all tough outs. It doesn’t matter who’s at the plate, that guy’s gonna get the job done. We got full confidence in that, and it’s a fun thing.”

Colorado will attempt to get the fireworks going early in Saturday’s rematch, against Giants left-hander Robbie Ray (7-6, 3.39 ERA), who hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last three starts, limiting the Atlanta Braves (twice) and Athletics to a total of two unearned runs and eight hits over 22 1/3 innings. He’s won all three of those games and hasn’t lost since May 18, a stretch of seven starts.

One of those outings was a 19-6 win at Colorado on May 31, a game in which he was not credited with a win because he went only four innings, allowing one earned run.

Ray, 34, is 6-6 with a 5.14 ERA in 23 lifetime starts against the Rockies, including 2-2 with a 5.10 ERA in 12 visits to Coors Field.

Friday’s loss was the Giants’ eighth in their last 13 games, a stretch in which they’ve faced the Athletics, Arizona Diamondbacks and Rockies — all sub-.500 teams — in seven contests.

San Francisco manager Tony Vitello grumbled a bit when it was suggested to him after the loss by a reporter that his team had failed to take advantage of an “easy” stretch of games.

“There’s no easy part of the schedule in this league, especially when you’re on the road,” Vitello said. “I don’t even know what (the Rockies’) exact record is, but there’s plenty of left-handed hitters in the middle of their lineup that are plenty good.”

–Field Level Media