Cristopher Sanchez helped ignite the Don Mattingly era last week.

The left-hander will try to propel Mattingly and the Philadelphia Phillies to another victory Tuesday when the Athletics come to town for the opener of a three-game series.

Philadelphia’s front office fired manager Rob Thomson a week ago and replaced him with Mattingly. The move has paid immediate dividends, as the Phillies are 6-1 under their new skipper.

In Mattingly’s first series as interim manager, the Phillies swept the San Francisco Giants in a three-game set. Sanchez logged a solid outing in Game 2 of that series, allowing two runs in 6 2/3 innings during a 3-2 triumph.

“I think he just kept fighting and kept making pitches,” Mattingly said. “That’s a pretty good outing when a guy gives up two in the first and can come back like that and keep us in the game.”

Sanchez did not appear in the team’s four-game series against the Miami Marlins that concluded Monday, but other players stepped up, including Aaron Nola. The veteran right-hander worked six scoreless innings Monday in a 1-0 victory, while Bryce Harper took care of the offense with his seventh homer of the year.

“April’s behind us,” Harper said. “We’ve got to step forward and understand that we’re stacking days and playing better and just keep it going, no matter where we’re at, what’s happening in the game or anything. Just stack the days and be where we want to be at the end.”

The Athletics are coming off a 7-1 home win over the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday, although that was their only win of the three-game series. The A’s allowed 22 runs while losing the first two games of the weekend set.

“Today was a big game for us,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said following the Sunday victory. “Dropping these last two games, you could feel a difference in the club emotionally, I think. There was a feeling of, ‘Man, we should have won those games.'”

Colby Thomas, Zack Gelof and Tyler Soderstrom homered on Sunday for the A’s, who have scored at least five runs in each of their past five games.

“I think we approach the game the same every day,” Thomas said. “We just want to go out there and win. I’m sure everybody knows where we’re at in the standings (first place in the American League West), and we’re just going to try to continue to play like we have been playing.”

The A’s will give the nod on Tuesday to Luis Severino (2-2, 4.46 ERA), who is coming off a pair of solid outings. The Dominican right-hander allowed two runs in 13 2/3 innings over the outings against the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals while earning his first two wins of the year.

“Since (making a mechanical adjustment), I just feel more in command and feel like I can throw the ball wherever I want,” Severino said.

In three lifetime starts against the Phillies, Severino is 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA.

Sanchez has faced the A’s twice, allowing three runs in 8 2/3 innings over those two outings without recording a decision.

The Phillies are expected to activate closer Jhoan Duran before Tuesday’s game. The hard-throwing right-hander missed the past three weeks due to a left oblique strain.

The Phillies and A’s played a three-game set in West Sacramento, Calif., last season. The visitors won two of the three matchups.

–Field Level Media

The Miami Marlins lost three of four in their most recent series, but they won’t be getting a lot of sympathy from the Baltimore Orioles.

The Marlins will look to bounce back with a win Tuesday when they visit the Orioles, who are desperate for a victory after an ugly trip to Yankee Stadium.

Baltimore comes in riding a five-game losing streak. After an 11-5 loss to end a home series against the Houston Astros on Thursday, the Orioles went to the Bronx and dropped all four meetings with the New York Yankees. The sweep was not particularly competitive, as Baltimore was outscored 39-10.

“Four-game set, to not win a game is really tough, frustrating,” Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said. “We’ve got to bounce back in Miami and just play clean baseball to give ourselves a chance.”

In the series-ending 12-1 defeat on Monday, Baltimore amassed 10 hits but mustered only the one run — on a bases-loaded walk, no less. Blaze Alexander led the way with three hits, but it wasn’t nearly enough for the scuffling Orioles.

“We just weren’t competitive,” Albernaz said. “We didn’t really give ourselves a chance to win, whether it be mistakes, miscues, whatever the case may be. But that’s on us. … This series it just felt like we couldn’t stop the bleeding in the big inning, or we just shot ourselves in the foot.”

Baltimore will try to recover behind Chris Bassitt (2-2, 5.46 ERA), who was terrific against the Astros on Thursday in his most recent outing. The veteran right-hander gave up one run in 6 2/3 innings in a much-needed start for one of the league’s most underperforming rotations.

“All of our starters have been pretty poor throughout the year,” Bassitt said that day. “I thought we had kind of a come-to Jesus (moment) … and had some hard talks about how we were pitching, our mindset with pitching. … We have bullpen guys — and obviously starters — that are way too good to be cute out there.”

Bassitt is 1-2 with a 4.21 ERA in four lifetime starts against Miami. This time, he will be opposing a Marlins team that mustered only two runs total in its most recent two games. Miami lost three of four in the series against the visiting Philadelphia Phillies, including 7-2 and 1-0 defeats to end the set.

“There were more scattered moments by us offensively tonight,” Miami manager Clayton McCullough said after the Monday defeat. “We just didn’t have that inning where we were able to string some (hits) together.”

Joe Mack, one of the Marlins’ top prospects, made his major league debut on Monday. The 23-year-old catcher batted seventh and went 0-for-3 with a strikeout.

“It’ll take a little while offensively to get up here and let yourself relax and take quality at-bats,” McCullough said, “but I thought behind the plate he seemed very calm and did a nice job.”

Sandy Alcantara (3-2, 3.04 ERA) will get the ball for the Marlins in the series opener. He gave up two runs and seven hits over six innings Wednesday in a no-decision against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He has not allowed a home run in either of his past two starts.

In two career starts vs. the Orioles, Alcantara is 1-1 with a 3.75 ERA.

The teams played three games in Baltimore last season. The Marlins lost the first game before winning the final two by a combined 17-1 margin.

–Field Level Media

After picking up Monday right where they left off over the weekend, the Tampa Bay Rays will try to win their three-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Rays, who are a season-best 10 games over .500 after winning 5-1 in the opener, have prevailed in 10 of their past 11 contests.

They turned to a less familiar name on Monday: Ryan Vilade.

Batting third, the 27-year-old Texan slugged a three-run homer that was all the Rays needed to secure their fourth straight victory.

Hitting .286 for the season, Vilade is batting .357 with nine RBIs and an .936 OPS over his past 14 games.

Tampa Bay’s Jonathan Aranda, who went 3-for-4 on Monday, is 9-for-13 in his past three outings, and Rays starter Nick Martinez moved to 3-1 with a 1.71 ERA after producing five innings of one-run ball.

The Rays are 12-2 in games started by either Martinez or Steven Matz.

Tampa Bay beat the Blue Jays four straight times last May — once in Toronto, three times in Tampa — and Rays manager Kevin Cash noticed a change as the Jays cut a path to the World Series.

“I remember that series in May, we swept them,” Cash said Monday on the team’s radio pregame show. “But they did a nice job of resetting themselves. They got great production from top to bottom of their lineup.

“They played really good defense. That is probably the thing that changed the most for me. … They weren’t giving extra outs, and a pretty electric bullpen.”

Three games under .500 and 6-11 away from home, the reigning American League champion Blue Jays are visiting arguably their least favorite venue. Toronto has lost nine of its past 11 games at Tampa Bay — either in Tampa or St. Petersburg — and hasn’t posted a winning record on the road vs. the Rays since 2014.

“It’s not the building, it’s not the turf, it’s not the roof, it’s not the lights, it’s not anything,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “(The Rays) are a good team. You’ve got to play better is the bottom line.”

Tuesday’s matchup will feature two powerful right-handers.

The Blue Jays will send out Kevin Gausman (2-2, 3.10 ERA), possessor of a darting splitter, for his eighth start of the season.

In 5 2/3 innings against Minnesota in his last outing on Thursday, the 14-year veteran yielded four runs on four hits in 5 2/3 innings while walking two and fanning two.

In 24 starts and two relief stints against the Rays, Gausman is 8-9 with a 4.06 ERA.

Tampa Bay will counter with Drew Rasmussen (2-1, 2.64 ERA), who lost his latest start in Cleveland after allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits in five innings on Wednesday.

In his 30 2/3 innings over six starts, the right-hander has a 0.848 WHIP that would lead the AL if he had pitched enough innings to qualify.

Rasmussen is 2-4 with a 2.65 ERA in nine starts and two relief appearances against the Blue Jays.

–Field Level Media