It has been a good week for both the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays.

The American League East rivals will look to build on recent sweeps as they collide for the first time this season, opening a four-game series on Thursday night in Boston.

Amid their teams’ momentum, two starting pitchers who are quite new to their roles are set to take the mound. Boston interim manager Chad Tracy will hand the ball to rookie left-hander Jake Bennett (1-0, 1.80 ERA) for only his second career start, while Tampa Bay will have right-hander Griffin Jax (1-2, 5.14) continuing his recent transition from the bullpen.

Bennett made a solid first impression on Friday, earning a 3-1 victory after holding the Houston Astros to a solo home run and stranding six of his seven baserunners across five innings.

That game also marked Tracy’s managerial debut at Fenway Park. (The Red Sox fired Alex Cora as manager on April 25.)

“There’s comfort with that for me, for sure, because I know the kid,” Tracy said of Bennett, who also began the season at Triple-A Worcester. “I know him better than anybody here as far as watching him and what he’s capable of doing.”

Tracy’s club bounced back from a 1-4 slump to win three games in a row, completing a road sweep of the Detroit Tigers with a 4-0 victory on Wednesday. It was Boston’s fifth shutout of the season, which ties for the most in baseball.

While a pair of two-run innings and just four total hits got it done in the Detroit finale, the first two games of the series featured a one-run win and a 10-run outburst. The Red Sox are 6-4 under the new skipper.

“Just try to keep being as consistent as possible,” third baseman Caleb Durbin said. “As a lineup, we’re working really hard, and we expect a lot of ourselves. This series was great, but it’s on to Tampa Bay.”

The Rays, however, will present a tall task, having banked consecutive three-game sweeps against the San Francisco Giants and Toronto Blue Jays during a six-game homestand before arriving in Boston. Their five series sweeps are the most in MLB this season.

“It’s a really fun place to work right now,” starting pitcher Shane McClanahan said after his 5 2/3-inning start in a 3-0 win over Toronto on Wednesday. “I come into the field each day, and I’m like, ‘Man, I’ve got a lot of my friends just hanging out, and we’re gonna go to war for each other.’ I can’t say enough good things.”

Complete baseball has been the key to Tampa Bay’s recent run of 12 wins in the last 13 games. Not once during that stretch have the Rays allowed more than three runs.

With such dominant pitching and defensive play, the runs do not need to come in bunches.

On Wednesday, Jonny DeLuca’s fourth-inning RBI double was all the Rays needed vs. the Blue Jays. The center fielder has 10 RBIs and 10 runs since April 8.

Jax will look to keep the line of strong pitching moving in his third straight start since moving into the rotation, though he is 0-1 with a 7.27 ERA in 14 career appearances (one start) against the Red Sox.

After allowing 11 runs (eight earned) across 11 relief appearances to start the season, Jax has been sharp since helping the Rays’ injury-depleted staff in a starting role, pitching five innings of shutout, two-hit ball over two starts.

“They’re on a good run, no doubt,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said of his team. “They’re setting the bar really high for themselves, and they should all be feeling pretty good about how individually they’re contributing.”

–Field Level Media

If the last two games of their series in San Francisco this week are any indication, the San Diego Padres might have found the offensive punch that was missing during a recent slump.

After scoring 15 total runs to record consecutive wins that led to a series victory over the Giants, San Diego will be back home on Thursday night to open a four-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Padres manager Craig Stammen shook up the lineup before Tuesday night’s game against the Giants. He elevated Jackson Merrill to the leadoff spot and Manny Machado to the No. 2 hole and dropped Fernando Tatis Jr. from 2 to 5. On Wednesday, Stammen moved Ramon Laureano from 1 to 6.

The results over a two-game stretch: 20 hits, four multiple-run innings, and an offense that looked more like the one the Padres envisioned in spring training instead of the one that’s hit for low average during the first six weeks of the season.

“They’re a determined group,” Stammen said of his team, which lost five of six games before its current two-game winning streak. “They’re not satisfied with just being OK. They want to be great. We predicted days like this for these types of hitters, and I think there will be more to come.”

Merrill showed real signs of life in San Francisco with six hits and three RBIs in the series, while Xander Bogaerts slugged his team-high seventh homer on Wednesday to put the game away, 5-1. There were contributions up and down the lineup, including Ty France’s two-run triple Wednesday that snapped a 1-1 tie vs. the Giants.

San Diego right-hander Michael King (3-2, 2.95 ERA) hopes that momentum carries into the series opener against St. Louis.

King is coming off a 4-0 loss Saturday night to the Chicago White Sox that saw him yield four runs on seven hits in six-plus innings with three walks and five strikeouts. He is 1-1 with a 2.35 ERA in two career outings against St. Louis, one of them a start.

The Cardinals, who have won seven of their past nine games, will counter with left-hander Matthew Liberatore (1-1, 4.50 ERA).

He last worked on Friday, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-2 with 5 2/3 solid innings, yielding two runs on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts. Liberatore is 0-3 with a 2.57 ERA in seven career outings (two starts) against San Diego.

Despite a 6-2 loss at home Wednesday to Milwaukee, St. Louis has been far better than some predicted it would be in 2026. The team’s offense has displayed much more power than expected, ranking in the top 10 in slugging percentage (eighth), home runs (ninth) and runs (10th).

Jordan Walker has emerged from the cocoon of two bad seasons with a start that suggests he’s finally ready to live up to high expectations, while rookie JJ Wetherholt has added power and on-base percentage to a lineup needing both attributes.

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol has been impressed with his offense’s ability to grind at-bats and maintain consistent pressure on pitchers. In a 6-3 win Monday night over Milwaukee, the Cardinals put a runner in scoring position in every inning except the sixth.

“That’s a lot of pressure,” Marmol said. “You do that to any pitching staff and at some point, they’ll all break.”

–Field Level Media

The Lakers might need all five defenders on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but even that may not be enough.

Game 1 showed just how massive the gap is between Los Angeles and the defending champion Thunder, especially with Luka Doncic sidelined. Oklahoma City dominated despite SGA scoring only 18 points, while Cleveland faces its own issues after Donovan Mitchell and James Harden struggled again in a rough Game 1 loss to Detroit.

The pressure is officially on for both underdogs heading into Thursday night.

It seemed like the Los Angeles Lakers had two or three players defending Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on every possession of Game 1. Hate to break it to Lakers coach JJ Redick but upgraded to all five might be what LA requires to compete with the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.

The tactics were worth a try but Oklahoma City still won by nearly 20 points. How bad is the margin going to be when SGA breaks out for 35 or 40 points in a game? He had 18 in the opener as the Thunder won 108-90 in the Western Conference second-round matchup.

The Cleveland Cavaliers also got off to a poor start in their Eastern Conference series against the Detroit Pistons. The Cavaliers might need to send out a search party to find the real Donovan Mitchell, who hasn’t reached 30 points since hitting the mark in each of the first two games of the first-round series against the Toronto Raptors.

LOS ANGELES LAKERS AT OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

Oklahoma City’s easy Game 1 victory makes it clear this series will be decided in four or five games. It will be a stellar accomplishment for the Lakers to play a Game 6 but it doesn’t seem possible with their top player, Luka Doncic, out with a hamstring injury.

LeBron James (21-plus points, -117) was solid with 27 points on 12-of-17 shooting and Los Angeles still couldn’t come close to an upset. James might have to kick it back into his form of five or six years ago and push 40 – points, not age – for the Lakers to claim Game 2.

Chet Holmgren was one of the many Oklahoma City players who flourished while SGA was being surrounded and he had 24 points and 12 rebounds. Holmgren (17-plus points, -111) should routinely get the better of Deandre Ayton and the Thunder also have Isaiah Hartenstein in the interior.

Gilgeous-Alexander (30-plus points, -102) surprisingly attempted just three free throws (making two) in Game 1. He figures to be closer to 30 points on Thursday and that generous Lakers’ point spread will be easy to bypass after Los Angeles managed just 90 points in the opener.

Thunder plus 15.5-point spread, -110 (DraftKings)

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS AT DETROIT PISTONS

The Cavaliers are counting on Mitchell to find his big-game form as he hasn’t scored more than 24 points in any of the past six games. Mitchell (25-plus, -107) is just 8-for-29 from 3-point range over the past three games and has taken just 11 free throws over the past seven games.

James Harden (20-plus points, -107) doesn’t have trouble getting to the line – he was 9-of-9 in the 111-101 Game 1 loss – but he’s also struggling from behind the arc with 3-of-16 shooting over the last three games. Cleveland can’t win this series if their two star guards aren’t knocking down shots and are committing turnovers (a combined 10 in Game 1).

Detroit’s defensive pressure was stellar in Game 1 and the Pistons scored 31 points off 20 Cleveland miscues. Backup Daniss Jenkins had four steals to help the Pistons hold the Cavaliers to 25 or fewer points in three of the four quarters.

Cade Cunningham (28-plus points, -116) had 23 points and seven assists and Tobias Harris (19-plus points, -107) contributed 20 points and eight rebounds. Big man Jalen Duren (12-plus rebounds, -108) had 11 points and 12 rebounds on a night in which Cleveland center Jarrett Allen (two points, three boards) was a non-factor.

Pistons minus 3.5-point spread, -105 (DraftKings)