The Chicago Cubs have found their rhythm at the plate.

Chicago will try to keep it up when it welcomes the Detroit Tigers for a three-game series beginning Monday night. The Cubs are coming off back-to-back wins over the Minnesota Twins, including a 10-1 rout on Sunday afternoon.

“Top to bottom, we’re just grinding out at-bats,” Cubs first baseman Michael Busch said. “We’re making that pitcher have his stuff for everybody in that lineup. I think it just makes his job tougher. It gets runners on base, it gets runners in scoring position.”

Detroit will try to spoil the Cubs’ momentum.

The Tigers won their first two games coming out of the All-Star break, but they fell short 3-2 against the host Los Angeles Angels on Sunday afternoon. Kevin McGonigle and Riley Greene each hit solo home runs in the loss for Detroit.

Tigers catcher Jake Rogers said he and his teammates felt good as they prepared to travel to Chicago.

“We came away with a series win,” Rogers said. “We’re happy.

“Obviously, we want to sweep there, and (it) could have been a big win, but it wasn’t our best hitting performance. They did a really good job of keeping us off the bases. And when they did, they got out of it.

“We’re playing winning ball right now. And obviously, it wasn’t a win there. And we wanted it, needed it, but we moved on.”

Tigers right-hander Jack Flaherty (3-8, 4.48 ERA) is set to start the series opener. He is two strikeouts shy of reaching 100 on the season.

The 30-year-old Flaherty is going for his third victory in as many starts. In his most recent outing on July 10, he got the win after limiting the visiting Philadelphia Phillies to two runs on two hits in six innings. He walked three and struck out six.

In 18 career games (16 starts) against the Cubs, Flaherty is 4-4 with a 3.38 ERA. He has walked 37 and struck out 89 in 74 2/3 innings.

Chicago is set to counter with right-hander Jameson Taillon (2-5, 5.19), who is expected to be activated from the injured list after sitting out since early June because of a left hamstring strain. Taillon, who will make his 14th start of the season, has earned 84 career victories in 237 games.

Taillon, 34, has started against the Tigers five times in his career. He is 2-2 with a 5.81 ERA in those outings, and he has walked seven and struck out 27 in 26 1/3 innings.

Nico Hoerner will look to stay hot as the Cubs begin their second series after the break. The second baseman went 2-for-5 with a triple and four RBIs on Sunday afternoon, and he had eight hits in 13 at-bats during the series.

On the season, Hoerner is hitting .245 with four homers and 43 RBIs in 97 games.

The Cubs are 29-20 at home this season. The Tigers are 19-30 on the road.

–Field Level Media

The New York Yankees would like to be more consistent at the plate but are confident in a tight game when David Bednar is on the mound.

The Yankees certainly felt good about Bednar on Sunday night when they eked out a home win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. They hope there are situations this week to use him against his former team starting Monday in the opener of a three-game series against the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates.

New York is 2-9 in its 11 home games after getting a tiebreaking homer from Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the eighth inning of a 2-1 victory in the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader against the Dodgers.

“We got to be more consistent offensively, first and foremost,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after his team stranded 11 runners in the win. “That’s been the biggest thing that I think has kind of ailed us through these few weeks.”

The Yankees earned the win thanks to Bednar, who recorded the final five outs.

Entering the series against the team which dealt him to the Yankees at last season’s trade deadline, Bednar is on a career-best 20 2/3 inning scoreless streak in his past 17 outings. During those games, opponents are hitting .103, and it is the longest active streak in the big leagues.

“I faced Bednar a lot in my career before coming over here and I always thought he was a really good pitcher,” Chisholm said. “His stuff is really lights out. Combined with the way that he has just great composure every time he goes out there and trusts his stuff, it’s amazing.”

The Pirates are 8-3 in their past 11 games after Sunday’s 7-1 win at Cleveland. Pittsburgh has scored at least five runs eight times in that span, and is hoping it can do enough at the plate to avoid facing Bednar, who notched 101 saves in five seasons before the trade.

Among the key figures for Pittsburgh’s surge at the plate is rookie Esmeryln Valdez, whose two-run homer in the ninth inning was his 12th in 31 games.

Valdez also has an RBI in seven straight games and 20 RBIs this month.

“It’s the professionalism of the at-bats,” Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly said. “He’s not going up there necessarily trying to hit the home runs. He’s going up there to hit, and he’s got the power to leave anywhere in the yard. It’s been really impressive what he’s been able to do in such a short amount of time.”

The right-handed hitting Valdez is hitting .371 off left-handed pitching. He will face New York southpaw Ryan Weathers (3-7, 4.15 ERA), who is allowing a .234 average to right-handed batters.

Weathers is 0-2 with a 5.73 ERA in his past three outings but allowed one run on six hits in 5 1/3 innings a week ago in Washington, marking the eighth time this season that he allowed one earned run or fewer.

Weathers is 0-2 with a 2.77 ERA in three career appearances (two starts) against Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh’s Braxton Ashcraft (9-3, 3.49) is making his first career start against the Yankees and will attempt to rebound from allowing five runs for the second time in three starts. Ashcraft is 4-0 with a 4.08 ERA in his past five outings and surrendered five runs on five hits in five innings in a no-decision during Pittsburgh’s 7-6 win over Milwaukee on July 11.

–Field Level Media

Chicago White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery summed up his team’s mentality in one word after their 3-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday: “Relentlessness.”

That attitude is serving the White Sox well, as they are currently one game up on the Cleveland Guardians for first place in the American League Central after winning five of their last six.

They will look to rely on that same mindset as they begin a three-game set against the AL West-leading Texas Rangers on Monday in Arlington, Texas.

Facing someone Montgomery called “a true competitor” in Blue Jays starter Trey Yesavage on Sunday, the White Sox hitters were ready for a battle at the plate.

“We knew we had to be disciplined with our plan,” Montgomery said.

“We just tried to stay positive,” he added. “And I think we just pulled through.”

Montgomery was a vital part of the 3-0 victory, hitting his team-leading 24th home run off Yesavage in the sixth inning.

There’s no secret ingredient to the surprise turnaround by the White Sox, but Montgomery credits the youth of the team for their day-to-day camaraderie.

“We’re all young, we’re all pretty inexperienced,” he said, “so we’re all just staying together.”

Erick Fedde (5-6, 4.15 ERA) will start for Chicago in Monday’s opener. Fedde’s last appearance came in relief on July 11, but he picked up the win after throwing four shutout innings in a 1-0 win against the visiting Athletics.

Fedde is 0-1 with a 2.70 ERA in three career appearances (two starts) versus the Rangers.

Texas power-hitting outfielder Wyatt Langford, who homered in the team’s 8-5 road loss to Atlanta on Sunday, has been slowed down only by the injury bug in 2026.

Langford has played in only 47 of the Rangers’ 99 games this season due to quad and forearm injuries in April and a hamstring strain in late June, but he’s not allowed the stop-start nature of his availability to throw off his rhythm. Seven of Langford’s 10 homers this season have come in his last 16 games, over which time he’s hitting .368 (25-for-68) with 17 RBIs.

Texas comes home after dropping two of three to the Braves in their first series after the break.

The Rangers will turn to veteran Jacob deGrom (7-5, 3.49) on the mound. The right-hander is coming off a health scare, as he was scratched from his last scheduled start on July 12 with a glute injury. Fortunately for Texas, their ace will avoid a stint on the injured list as he gets ready to face Chicago.

Texas manager Skip Schumaker said he waited to make the decision to start deGrom until he threw a pain-free bullpen session over the weekend, saying, “You want to check every box.”

“His health is good after the break, which is great news,” the manager said.

The last time deGrom took the mound, he had a no-decision in the Rangers’ 8-3 win over the visiting Los Angeles Angels on July 7, giving up two runs and striking out seven in five innings.

The White Sox are one of just five teams that deGrom has not beaten in his 13-year career. A five-time All-Star and two-time winner of the National League Cy Young Award, he has a 0-0 record and 1.80 ERA in three previous starts against Chicago.

–Field Level Media