Two teams that might be trending in the right direction will meet Thursday night when the Toronto Blue Jays visit the Baltimore Orioles to open a four-game series.

The Blue Jays just completed a 4-2 homestand, capped by a 2-1 victory against the Miami Marlins on Wednesday afternoon. Toronto needed four relievers to get through the final four innings.

The Blue Jays, who have won two in a row and six of their past eight games, are in a taxing portion of their schedule. They haven’t had a day off since May 14.

Toronto would like to get rookie third baseman Kazuma Okamoto going again at the plate. The right-handed hitter socked a solo home run to right-center on Wednesday, but he is 6-for-48 (.125) with three RBIs in his past 14 games.

“In center and right-center, he’s got pretty elite power,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “That was just a really good approach.”

The Orioles are riding a high after sweeping three games from the visiting Tampa Bay Rays, who hold the American League’s best record.

“We know the team that we have and the caliber of players that we have on this team and knew it was only a matter of time to get going a little bit,” Baltimore shortstop Gunnar Henderson said. “Hope we can keep it going.”

The Orioles’ 11-2 triumph on Wednesday featured a five-run first inning. Henderson homered twice in the game, and Blaze Alexander homered, doubled and singled while driving in a career-high six runs.

“A bunch of guys from different teams and stuff, and we’re finally starting to come together,” Alexander said. “I know fans don’t want to hear that, but patience, man, patience.”

Left-hander Patrick Corbin (2-1, 3.86 ERA) gets the call for the Blue Jays to open the series. He worked a season-high six innings on Saturday, giving up one run while striking out a season-best seven in a victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates. That was his first outing without a walk this season.

Corbin is 1-6 with a 5.46 ERA in 11 all-time games (10 starts) against Baltimore.

The Orioles are lined up to use right-hander Chris Bassitt (4-3, 5.51) after his start was pushed back a day. Bassitt pitched the past three seasons for the Blue Jays. He has faced Toronto three times in his career, going 0-1 with a 4.26 ERA in 19 innings.

The rotation might be rounding into form for the Orioles, who got 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball from Trey Gibson after he was called up to start on Wednesday. Gibson emerged with his first major league win.

“I think they’re getting into a groove,” manager Craig Albernaz said of his starting pitchers. “I think they’re in a good cadence of their work and their process, as far as in between starts, making little tweaks that they need to, whether that be delivery or pitch usage.”

If there was something that went awry for the Orioles on Wednesday it was reliever Yennier Cano leaving the game due to right hamstring discomfort.

“It tightened up on him on a foul ball by (Tampa Bay’s Richie) Palacios and he kind of did a quick move to go get it and he said he felt it tighten up on him,” Albernaz said.

The Blue Jays added right-handed reliever Connor Seabold, who had been designated for assignment, in a trade with the Tigers on Wednesday. Toronto sent minor league left-hander Juanmi Vasquez to Detroit.

Veteran right-hander Austin Voth was promoted to the Blue Jays from Triple-A Buffalo, and rookie right-hander Tanner Andrews was optioned to Buffalo.

–Field Level Media

The Chicago Cubs finally cured some of their ills by snapping their longest losing streak in almost four years on Wednesday.

But on Thursday night, the Cubs will face Pirates ace and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes, who will try to get back on track in the finale of the teams’ four-game series in Pittsburgh.

Skenes (6-4, 3.00 ERA), who will oppose fellow right-hander Colin Rea (4-3, 4.83) of the Cubs, is coming off back-to-back subpar starts following a pair of strong outings to open May.

Skenes allowed four runs on a career-high nine hits — including a leadoff home run by George Springer — in a 5-2 loss at Toronto on Saturday. Skenes appeared to shake off the blast until the sixth inning, when he gave up four consecutive hits, which led to three runs, without recording an out.

That showing followed a start in which he allowed five runs on six hits over five innings in a 6-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on May 17. It was the first time Skenes has yielded more than three earned runs in consecutive starts.

He opened May with back-to-back outings of eight scoreless innings, during which he allowed only two hits per appearance.

“There was good and bad,” Skenes said after his start. “I need to get ahead in counts. I wasn’t super unhappy with some of the execution on some of the pitches but could have executed a number of them better.”

Skenes is 2-2 with a 2.94 ERA in seven career starts against the Cubs.

Chicago has been streaky, putting together two 10-game winning stretches this season and a 10-game skid that ended with a 10-4 victory Wednesday.

Ian Happ, who recently sat out two games during a major slump, ignited the Cubs’ offense with five RBIs. He entered the game in a 2-for-31 stretch and was hitting .212 before continuing his strong play in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Happ reached base for the 40th consecutive game at PNC Park and is a career .300 hitter there.

“Whatever you want to call it, monkey on your back, whatever, it’s nice that it’s gone,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It starts over tomorrow, and you have to win a game tomorrow, but we needed it. The room needed it. We all needed it. And we played a good game tonight.”

The offensive jolt was huge for the Cubs, who had scored only 14 runs over their previous eight games.

Jameson Taillon was just effective enough to keep Chicago in the game until its six-run seventh inning broke it open.

Rea will try to keep the momentum going as he looks to build off his longest start of the season. He went seven innings and allowed three runs on four hits and three walks while striking out four on Saturday in a 3-0 loss to the Houston Astros.

Rea had pitched only twice into the seventh inning this season before that game.

He is 3-3 with a 5.09 ERA in 10 career appearances (eight starts) against the Pirates.

–Field Level Media

The Texas Rangers seemingly have run out of answers for Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez, who has dominated the first three contests of the four-game series between the teams.

Alvarez has homered twice in back-to-back games for the Astros, who have won two of the three contests heading into the series finale on Thursday night in Arlington, Texas.

With five home runs in his last three games, Alvarez is tied with Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox for the American League lead with 20 homers.

Alvarez hit a tie-breaking solo homer in the eighth inning on Wednesday as Houston recorded its fifth win in the past six games, 4-3.

In the ninth inning, the Rangers intentionally walked Alvarez with a runner on first.

“What’s Yordan is doing is next level,” Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena said. “He’s not just hitting home runs, but it’s the at-bats that he takes, the approach, his ability to square up every single pitch and hit it over 110 (mph). It’s pretty impressive to watch.”

Alvarez is the fifth player in franchise history to hit at least two homers in consecutive games, joining Jose Altuve (2023), Richard Hidalgo (2000), Moises Alou (2000) and Doug Rader (1973).

Alvarez is batting .312 this season, with 39 RBIs and a .663 slugging percentage.

“I mean, it’s hard to put into words (what Yordan is doing),” Houston pitcher Mike Burrows said. “He’s truly incredible. Incredible hitter, incredible outfielder, and incredible teammate. We can always count on him, and that’s great.”

Texas’ Joc Pederson matched Alvarez’s effort on Wednesday, going 3-for-4 with a pair of solo homers. Pederson has gone deep three times in his last two games for Texas, which has lost five of its last six.

The pitching matchup for the series finale will feature a pair of right-handers as Houston’s Spencer Arrighetti (6-1, 1.32 ERA) faces the Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi (5-5, 3.65).

Arrighetti, 26, continued his breakout season by pitching five scoreless innings in a 4-2 road victory over the Chicago Cubs last Friday. He earned the win despite issuing four walks and hitting two batters.

Arrighetti is the first Houston pitcher with an ERA of 1.32 or better through his first seven starts of a season since Justin Verlander (1.13) in 2018.

Arrighetti will face the Rangers for the second time this month after allowing one hit over 7 1/3 scoreless innings in a 2-0 home win on May 15. He is 1-0 with an ERA of 0.68 in two career outings vs. Texas.

The Rangers will counter with Eovaldi, who has allowed a total of four runs over his last four starts covering 29 innings. The 36-year-old yielded three runs over seven frames in a 5-2 road loss to the Los Angeles Angels last Saturday.

Alvarez is 12-for-23 (.522) with two home runs against Eovaldi, who is 5-5 with a 3.44 ERA in 15 career starts vs. Houston.

Texas made a roster change on Wednesday, designating former National League MVP Andrew McCutchen for assignment and signing utility infielder Nicky Lopez, who went 0-for-3 in his debut.

“We’re at a point where given the injuries (in the infield), Nicky gives us another option and provides some versatility, which is needed right now, given where we are,” Texas president of baseball operations Chris Young said.

McCutchen, 39, who won the MVP Award with Pittsburgh in 2013, was batting only .192 in 37 games this season, with one homer and five RBIs.

–Field Level Media