The New York Mets needed something to go their way in hopes of turning around a forgettable start to the season.

Fresh off a rare series win, the Mets will hope to keep the momentum going when they travel to Denver to take on the reeling Colorado Rockies on Monday to begin a three-game set.

New York began its six-game West Coast road trip by taking two of three from the Los Angeles Angels — the team’s first road series victory since a four-game set against the San Francisco Giants in early April.

After a 10-21 start, the club may be finding some momentum.

“That’s our goal, to start winning series,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “That’s what it’s going to take for us to get to where we want to be. One series at a time, one game at a time.”

Desperately needing a shot in the arm at the plate, New York received a pair of two-run home runs from Mark Vientos in a 5-1 win on Sunday. The Mets’ 118 runs are second fewest in the majors — ahead of only the Giants’ 106.

“I think that’s the name of the game — putting yesterday in the past,” Vientos said. “We have to focus on the right now.”

Mendoza said the team plans on using an opener Monday before David Peterson (0-4, 6.53 ERA) takes the mound.

The struggling veteran left-hander has failed to complete four innings in each of his last three starts. On Wednesday, the 30-year-old Denver native surrendered seven runs on five hits in 3 2/3 frames in a 14-2 loss to the Washington Nationals.

Peterson is slated to face his hometown team for the fifth time, going 3-1 with a 1.99 ERA in the first four starts.

Colorado, meanwhile, has dropped five of its last six since sweeping the Mets from April 24-26. The Rockies’ pitching staff is coming off a disastrous weekend set against the Atlanta Braves, allowing 28 runs across the three-game sweep.

Needing a stopper, Colorado will turn to offseason addition Tomoyuki Sugano (3-1, 2.84) in the series opener, which was moved up three hours due to predicted inclement weather.

Last time out, Sugano threw 5 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out two in a 13-2 win over the host Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday.

“(Sugano) set the tone, kept them off-balanced, relied on his offspeed pitches,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said of Sugano’s last outing. “He was really good, efficient, just like he’s been all year.”

Sugano, 36, went 10-10 with a 4.64 ERA in 30 starts for the Baltimore Orioles last year as a rookie. The right-hander, who signed with Colorado in February, faced the Mets once last year, yielding three runs in six frames in a 7-3 win on July 10.

–Field Level Media

The three-game interleague series between the Atlanta Braves and host Seattle Mariners that begins Monday will be without one superstar and perhaps a second.

Braves right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. was placed on the 10-day injured list Sunday with a strained left hamstring suffered while running to first base the previous day in Colorado.

“The MRI showed a Grade 1 strain, so not too serious, but serious enough that we had to put him on the list,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said before Sunday’s 11-6 victory against the Rockies.

“It’s not going to be just a couple days,” Weiss continued. “It’s gonna be more than that, so we need to put him on the IL, and, hopefully, it’ll be sooner than later. No idea with these soft tissue injuries how long they’re gonna take, but I think the silver lining is that the MRI showed it wasn’t too serious.”

Acuna had played in each of the Braves’ first 34 games this season after appearing in just 144 over the previous two campaigns after suffering a torn ACL in May 2024. The five-time All-Star and 2023 National League MVP had heated up after a slow start, batting .381 over his past six games.

“All things considered, it could have been a lot worse,” Weiss said.

Meanwhile, Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, coming off a record 60-homer season, sat out the past two games with discomfort in his right side that required an MRI.

“Cal is continuing to make strides,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said before Sunday’s 4-1 loss to visiting Kansas City. “He’s got a little soreness in the side. We’ll continue to look at it day to day and go from there and continue to assess it.”

Raleigh, who has never been on the injured list in his six-year major league career, said he’s hoping to avoid that.

He said he first felt the discomfort after Friday’s game.

“Didn’t really think too much of it,” Raleigh said. “It’s normal. Things happen in games throughout the season, but I woke up the next day and it stayed sore, and I let the staff know. I was just trying to play it safe.”

Raleigh, who won the Home Run Derby at last year’s All-Star Game in Atlanta, also recently heated up after a slow start with five homers in a seven-game span from April 20-27.

The 29-year-old said he felt much better Sunday and even took swings in the batting cage pregame to test his oblique area.

“It felt good,” he said. “(Sunday) was a good day. Obviously, everybody’s leaning on the cautionary side, which is to be expected. In the moment, you hate it, but down the line, I think they’ll pay dividends.”

While the Braves swept their three-game series in Colorado to improve to an MLB-best 25-10, the defending American League West champion Mariners lost all three to the visiting Royals to drop to 16-19.

Monday’s series opener is set to feature a pair of right-handers in Braves rookie JR Ritchie (1-0, 2.92 ERA), a Seattle-area native, and the Mariners’ Logan Gilbert (1-3, 4.03).

Ritchie, who attended high school on nearby Bainbridge Island, will be making his third major league start. After winning his debut April 23 at Washington, he didn’t get a decision Wednesday against visiting Detroit when he allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits over 5 1/3 innings, with four walks and four strikeouts in a game the Braves won 4-3 with two runs in the bottom of the ninth.

Gilbert didn’t get a decision Tuesday in a 7-1 victory at Minnesota despite allowing one run on six hits over five innings. He’s 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA in two career starts against Atlanta.

–Field Level Media

The Chicago White Sox were one win away Sunday from reaching a pivotal milestone in their long rebuild.

But the White Sox will get a chance to again get within a game of .500 on Monday night when they visit the skidding Los Angeles Angels in the opener of a three-game series.

Davis Martin (4-1, 1.95 ERA) is slated to start for the White Sox against Jose Soriano (5-1, 0.84) in a battle of right-handers enjoying breakout seasons.

Both teams suffered losses Sunday afternoon. The visiting White Sox missed a chance to complete a sweep of the San Diego Padres as they fell 4-3 in the finale of a three-game series.

The host Angels squandered an early lead and fell to the New York Mets 5-1 in the rubber game of a three-game set.

The loss ended a five-game winning streak for the White Sox, who never trailed in the first two games of the series while outscoring the Padres 12-2. Chicago had a chance to extend its surge in the ninth inning Sunday when Tristan Peters singled off All-Star closer Mason Miller with two outs and stole second but Miller struck out Luisangel Acuna.

The loss cost the White Sox (16-18) a chance to move to .500 but did little to diminish the internal confidence that they’re ready to become contenders. Chicago, whose 178-342 record since the start of 2023 is the worst in the majors, has not been at .500 beyond the sixth game of a season since it ended the 2022 campaign at 81-81.

“They believe in each other, they believe in themselves,” White Sox manager Will Venable said, “We’ve just got to continue to battle and, as we continue to just play good baseball, we continue to develop that belief. So, a good series for us.”

While the White Sox might finally be ready to turn a corner, the struggles continue for the Angels, whose 10 consecutive losing seasons and 11-season playoff drought are each the longest active streaks in baseball.

The Angels have lost 12 of 14 following an 11-10 start. The only team with a worse record is the Mets. Los Angeles has scored three runs or fewer in 11 of its last 14 games. The Angels didn’t get a runner beyond first Sunday after Jorge Soler’s first-inning RBI single.

“Offensively, we’ve all dialed in to what our approach is going to be,” said Jo Adell, who hit into an inning-ending double play immediately after Soler’s single. “We’re just going to continue to show up and do what we do.”

Martin and Soriano are opposing each other for the second straight start.

Martin earned the victory last Tuesday night, when he allowed one run over 5 2/3 innings as the White Sox began their winning streak by beating the Angels 5-2. He has given up two runs or fewer in each of his last five starts.

Soriano suffered his first loss of the season after giving up three runs over five innings. He entered Tuesday having allowed just one run over 37 2/3 innings in his first six starts.

Martin is 1-1 with a 2.66 ERA in four career starts against the Angels. Soriano is 1-1 with a 1.93 ERA in three games (two starts) against the White Sox.

–Field Level Media