Big innings have defined the first two games of the three-game series between the Los Angeles Angels and Tampa Bay Rays, and perhaps one more may be in order in Sunday afternoon’s finale in St. Petersburg, Fla.

In the opener on Friday, the Rays crafted a seven-run seventh inning and topped the visitors 8-5, but the Angels bounced back with four runs in the first and seven in the ninth to rout Tampa Bay 14-3 on Saturday and square the series at a game apiece.

Wade Meckler hit his first grand slam in his 28th career game, while Joe Adell popped a three-run shot. Solo shots by Mike Trout, No. 418 of his career, and Oswald Peraza added to the power display.

Los Angeles’ first-year manager Kurt Suzuki had warned about the American League-leading Rays’ big-inning explosiveness before his club turned the tide Saturday.

“It’s just one bad inning,” Suzuki, whose club is 6-2 in the past eight, said of the Rays’ seven-spot Friday. “A walk and then a couple of homers. That kind of started the inning off, and it’s just what Tampa does. They put pressure on you, can run, bunt and do all that type of stuff. It’s hard to get stopped.”

Angels shortstop Zach Neto was injured in a violent collision Saturday at home plate with pitcher Ian Seymour as he scored on a wild pitch. Suzuki said Neto got whiplash in the contact.

Infielder Nick Madrigal, who went to second base as Peraza moved to short to replace Neto, left the game with a cut lip after being hit by a pitch and having the ball carom to his mouth.

The Rays lost for just the second time in the past 18 home games and are 20-6 in their dome.

In the finale, Shane McClanahan (5-2, 2.52 ERA) will make his 11th start and look to record a victory for the fifth time in the past seven outings.

Over his past six starts totaling 32 innings, the left-hander has allowed only four runs, all in a home appearance against the Baltimore Orioles two weeks ago, and has a 4-0 record and a 1.13 ERA.

The 29-year-old hurler has 50 strikeouts in 50 innings and owns a 1.04 WHIP.

McClanahan and his teammates were welcomed to their homestand by a “Tarps Off” crew: A boisterous, bouncy, shirtless group of males who swirled towels constantly and cheered on the Rays enthusiastically.

A former player at nearby University of South Florida, McClanahan is excited about the crazy behavior in the stands.

“It was awesome (on Friday),” he said. “I felt like the atmosphere was electric. We had thousands of people in left field twirling a towel all game. It kind of feels like a playoff game at times. … It’s very appreciated.”

Against Los Angeles in four starts, McClanahan is 1-0 with a 1.17 ERA with 32 strikeouts in 23 innings and a 0.83 WHIP. The Angels have hit .160 without a home run.

In one more start than McClanahan, 25-year-old Jack Kochanowicz is 2-3 with a 4.99 ERA but is 0-3 with a 7.52 over five appearances in May.

The Philadelphia-born right-hander will make his debut against Tampa Bay.

He has not won since a 10-2 victory at the Cincinnati Reds on April 10. The 6-foot-7 pitcher yielded one run on two hits over seven innings.

–Field Level Media

The Chicago White Sox ran into their first bit of really bad luck this season on Friday when slugger Munetaka Murakami strained his right hamstring and is expected to be out four to six weeks.

After three seasons of 100-plus losses, the White Sox are above .500 and contending in the American League Central heading into Sunday afternoon’s home game against the Detroit Tigers.

Murakami, a 26-year-old Japanese star who signed a two-year, $34 million contract in December, has 20 home runs to share the AL lead in that category. The rookie first baseman is hitting .240 with 41 RBIs, 44 walks and 43 runs while building a .938 OPS in 57 games.

“It’s tough, obviously,” Chicago manager Will Venable told ESPN. “He makes a massive impact on our group, on and off the field.

“He’s probably pretty down right now, knowing that’s going to take a different form here over the next few weeks,” Venable added. “This is what every single team deals with, and you’ve got to try to find ways to continue to put plays together and play well and play good baseball.”

The White Sox played inspired baseball in the first game without their slugger on Saturday as Edgar Quero, Colson Montgomery and Andrew Benintendi hit home runs in a 7-1 rout of the Tigers.

Murakami has a Grade 2 strain in his right hamstring after beating out a grounder Friday.

“My goal was to (play) the full season healthy, but that really didn’t come out well,” Murakami told ESPN through an interpreter. “But after this injury, I will recover fully, 100%, and give them all each and every day. I’m not going to be adjusting anything after the injury or nothing like that.”

Chicago has won four straight games, but Detroit has three losses in a row and only six wins in May.

“We just have to keep plugging and dig ourselves out of this hole,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “It just seems to get deeper every day. Nothing really matters now until the next day’s game. We have to do something better, and we have to block out a lot of noise.”

After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning on Saturday, the Tigers fought back to make it 2-1. They had runners on second base for three straight innings but could not score again.

“I don’t ever want to say I am out of answers,” Hinch said. “I know a lot of these games are rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, but we just have to start finding solutions.”

The Tigers will try to end the month on a good note Sunday when they send Keider Montero (2-3, 4.09 ERA) to the mound.

The 25-year-old right-hander last won on May 2, when he beat the visiting Texas Rangers 5-1. In his last start on Tuesday, Montero went five-plus innings, giving up eight hits, four runs and one walk with seven strikeouts in his team’s 10-6 home loss to the Los Angeles Angels.

In his career, Montero is 13-12 with a 4.47 ERA in 49 games, including 38 starts. He is 0-0 with a 3.97 ERA in three games (one start) against the White Sox.

The White Sox will counter with Sean Burke (2-3, 3.90 ERA). The 26-year-old right-hander last won on May 2, 4-0 over the host San Diego Padres.

Chicago has lost four straight starts by Burke, including Tuesday in his most recent outing, 5-3 to the visiting Minnesota Twins in 11 innings.

Burke was sharp, however, going seven innings, giving up three hits, two runs and two walks while striking out eight in 100 pitches.

He is a career 8-14 with a 3.88 ERA in 43 games, including 34 starts. Burke is 1-0 with a 1.50 ERA in two starts against the Tigers.

–Field Level Media

Houston shortstop Jeremy Pena routinely is lauded for his production and personality, and the Astros missed both while he spent 33 games on the injured list earlier this season because of a hamstring strain.

With Pena back in the lineup, the Astros are reaping dividends. Pena finished 3-for-5 with three runs and two RBIs in the Astros’ 9-2 victory over the visiting Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday, a win that knotted this three-game interleague series heading into the finale on Sunday afternoon.

Pena homered for the first time at home this season and for the third time in his last four starts. Since his reinstatement from the IL on May 18, Pena is hitting .289 with 10 runs and eight RBIs.

“He kind of puts everything together,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He’s our leadoff hitter, he’s our quarterback on the field. Keeping him healthy is important; what he means to this team is huge.

“Having him back swinging the bat really well, hitting home runs, we can definitely use that production at the top of the lineup.”

Right-hander Tatsuya Imai (2-2, 6.17 ERA) has the starting assignment for the Astros on Sunday.

Imai worked the first six innings of a combined no-hitter against the Texas Rangers on Memorial Day, issuing four walks while logging two strikeouts. He recorded a season-high innings total and pitches (97) in his second scoreless outing of 2026.

Imai will make his first career appearance against the Brewers and his first vs. the National League.

For Milwaukee, right-hander Jacob Misiorowski (5-2, 1.83 ERA) is scheduled to start the rubber match of the series.

Misiorowski earned a 5-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals last Monday after allowing one run on two hits and one walk with 12 strikeouts in seven innings, ending his scoreless innings streak at 29 1/3, the third-longest in franchise history. He has six quality starts and leads the majors in strikeouts (100), WHIP (0.828) and hits per nine innings (4.8).

Misiorowski will face the Astros for the first time in his career. He is 3-1 with a 2.41 ERA in seven career interleague starts.

Brewers rookie right-hander Brandon Sproat recorded only 13 outs on Saturday, marking the fifth time he failed to complete at least five innings since joining the rotation on April 16, a span of eight starts.

Manager Pat Murphy expressed confidence in Sproat but acknowledged the inherent challenges of an inexperienced pitcher learning on the fly while starting for an organization harboring postseason expectations.

Sproat doesn’t have the runway to work through the issues that routinely confound young pitchers, so it might take additional opportunities for him to build the experience required to consistently work deeper into his starts.

“When you have those expectations, the manager is going to have a quicker hook,” Murphy said. “How are you going to build up that stamina if your damn manager is taking you out of the game?

“It’s not so much that when he learns to pitch, even if his stuff trails off. He’ll be able to stay out there when his stuff is a little less.”

–Field Level Media