Coming off a shutout loss to Tampa Bay, perhaps the last person the Kansas City Royals want to see on the mound on Thursday is Ian Seymour.

Especially after the left-hander dominated them last week.

Hoping teammate Junior Caminero continues his power surge, Seymour will try to help the visiting Rays extend their winning streak to a season-high eight games on Thursday night against the struggling Royals.

After Casey Legumina threw 1 1/3 hitless innings against Kansas City last Thursday, Seymour (4-1, 4.32 ERA) came on and yielded no hits and only one walk while striking out seven batters over 6 2/3 stellar frames. However, teammate Craig Kimbrel allowed Kansas City’s only hit, a two-run homer in the ninth inning to Carter Jensen, during the Rays’ 13-2 win.

Seymour has a 2.84 ERA with 19 strikeouts in his last four outings, in which he’s started twice and has been used in bulk two times.

“When you control the count and throw in the strike zone — good things happen,” said Seymour, slated for the starter role on Thursday. “It comes down to the reps that longer outings allow you to have. From a delivery standpoint, you just feel a little more crisp.”

While Seymour hopes for another strong performance, Caminero will look to continue his impressive offensive run.

With a two-run homer in the first inning of the Rays’ 4-0 win at Kansas City on Wednesday, Caminero became the youngest player since at least 1900 to go deep in six consecutive games. At 22 years, 361 days old, he topped a mark set by then-23-year-old Ken Griffey Jr. with his ninth home run in the last eight games — during which he’s batting .452 with 20 RBIs.

Caminero is hitting .429 with six of his 24 home runs and 14 RBIs in five games vs. Kansas City this season.

“Running out of words,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Caminero. “Really exciting that he’s doing it.”

Tampa Bay has outscored opponents 47-13 during its second seven-game winning streak of 2026. The Rays own a 32-9 run advantage while beating the Royals four times during that stretch.

After outscoring the Royals 14-4 in the first two games of this set, Tampa Bay secured its first winning road series since May 11-13. Its only road series sweep of 2026 came against the Chicago White Sox from April 14-16.

Kansas City, meanwhile, has been outscored 60-16 while losing six of the last seven games overall. However, star Bobby Witt Jr. is batting .469 during an eight-game home hitting streak.

Royals manager Matt Quatraro said he expects Stephen Kolek (4-2, 4.15 ERA) to start the series finale. The right-hander has been away from the club due to the premature birth of his daughter.

Kolek has not pitched since he allowed nine runs and nine hits — including three homers — in just 1 2/3 innings of a 12-10 home loss to St. Louis on June 21.

“Those days are going to happen,” Kolek told The Kansas City Star. “It’s definitely tough to pitch when you don’t have command over stuff like that. “So we’re going to clean it up.”

This will be Kolek’s first appearance against the Rays.

–Field Level Media

The Los Angeles Dodgers own a commanding 12-game lead in the National League West and are well-positioned to increase the advantage when they host the second-place San Diego Padres on Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series.

The Dodgers own the best record in the majors and just completed a 7-2 road trip despite Wednesday’s 7-1 loss to the Athletics.

“It never feels good to lose,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s still a great road trip for us.”

The Dodgers are a whopping 25 games above .500 at 56-31 and took two of three games from the Padres in San Diego last weekend.

But Roberts badly wants to extend the division lead.

“We try to take every series with the same importance, but winning this series is a goal,” he said of facing San Diego.

The Padres have lost five straight games, including 23-3 to the host Chicago Cubs on Wednesday. The 20-run losing margin is the worst in franchise history.

The 1969 expansion Padres twice lost 19-0 — once to the host Cubs and once to the visiting Dodgers. In 2005, the Padres were trounced 20-1 by the host Colorado Rockies.

The 23 runs allowed on Wednesday matched a franchise worst. That also came in Chicago when the Cubs steamrolled the Padres 23-6 in 1977.

San Diego also served up eight homers in the disastrous finale of a three-game series.

“It only counts as one (loss),” San Diego manager Craig Stammen said afterward. “We’ve got to remember that. … (Things are) going as poorly as they can right now, and we’ve got to find a way to dig deep, dig our way out of that hole. I think there’s some grit on this team, and we’ve got to dig deep for that.

“If we get negative, we turn on each other, we start pointing fingers — that’s when it’ll turn into disaster.”

A loss to the Dodgers on Thursday would drop the Padres to .500 for the first time since being 6-6 on April 8.

“I shouldn’t have to say it, but we need to turn the intensity up for this next series,” San Diego outfielder/first baseman Gavin Sheets said. “Obviously, we get off to slow starts, and the game starts to snowball a little bit. But we’ve got to keep that under control and as a defense not let that unravel and not let it affect the way we play.

“We need to get back on track against the Dodgers and right this road trip.”

Ailing Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts (right wrist) sat out Wednesday’s game but is expected back Thursday. Freddie Freeman homered for the lone Los Angeles run.

The Dodgers had just five hits in the finale after totaling 18 runs and 31 hits while winning the first two games of the series.

Padres right-hander Randy Vasquez (6-6, 4.44 ERA), who will start on Thursday, lost to the Dodgers last Saturday when he gave up seven runs (four earned) and eight hits over 3 1/3 innings. He served up homers to Kyle Tucker and Dalton Rushing during the 15-3 loss.

Vazquez, 27, also lost to the Dodgers on May 20 when he gave up three runs and six hits — including a homer to Shohei Ohtani — over 4 1/3 innings. Overall, he’s 0-3 with a 5.57 ERA in five appearances (three starts) against Los Angeles and has given up two homers to Andy Pages (4-for-10 vs. him) while being scorched by Freeman (5-for-9, three doubles).

The Dodgers will counter on Thursday with right-hander Roki Sasaki (3-5, 4.88 ERA), who is 0-2 with an 8.36 ERA over his last three turns.

Sasaki, 24, lost to the Padres 7-1 last Friday when he allowed three runs and three hits over four-plus innings. That’s his lone outing against San Diego.

–Field Level Media