Hoping to prolong their newfound success under a fresh regime, the Philadelphia Phillies continue a six-game homestand on Friday with the series opener against the Colorado Rockies.

Despite a 12-1 loss to the Athletics on Thursday, the Phillies are 8-2 since firing manager Rob Thomson and promoting Don Mattingly to interim skipper. Philadelphia is vying to take advantage of a stretch that will see it play opponents with a losing record in four out of five series.

Phillies left-hander Jesus Luzardo (3-3, 5.09 ERA) gets the start on Friday, looking to continue a stretch of impressive outings. Following a slow start to the year, Luzardo has allowed just three runs total across his past three starts.

On Sunday, he picked up his second straight win, throwing 6 1/3 innings of two-run ball and striking out 10 in a 7-2 road victory over the Miami Marlins.

“(Luzardo) has been really good,” Mattingly said. “He hasn’t walked anybody in a couple games. He’s been in the strike zone, on the attack. … I didn’t see him (as) being bad early in the year. I just felt like there were some innings that got away. It was kind of the way everything was going for us early.”

Luzardo is 2-1 with a 4.50 ERA in six career appearances (four starts) against the Rockies. On April 4, he allowed one run across 6 2/3 frames and fanned a season-high 11 in a 2-1 win at Denver.

The Rockies will try to use a thrilling win to build momentum after a woeful start to the month of May. Colorado snapped a six-game losing streak by scoring the last six runs of a 6-2 victory over the visiting New York Mets on Thursday.

Jake McCarthy enters the road trip among the club’s hottest hitters. He belted two home runs and drove in seven runs across the past two games — including a tiebreaking grand slam in the eighth inning on Thursday.

“He’s been swinging the bat really well as of late,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said of McCarthy. “… Huge, huge homer to lift the boys after losing six in a row. You can’t put words together to show how big that was. Good for Jake. Happy for him.”

Colorado will go with Chase Dollander (3-2, 3.38 ERA) in the series opener, giving him just his second start of the season after he primarily has appeared behind openers. Dollander, 24, went 5 1/3 frames on Saturday, allowing six runs on eight hits in a 9-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves.

“I thought he was just a little behind all day,” Schaeffer said of Dollander following that outing. “I thought it was unusual, had some walks (a season-high three). The breaking ball, off-speed stuff, not enough strikes out of those.”

Dollander faced Philadelphia for the first time in his young career on April 4, taking the loss after allowing a one run in 4 1/3 innings in the 2-1 defeat to Luzardo and company.

–Field Level Media

The Athletics have something to build on as they go into the next phase of their road trip.

They will meet the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night in the opener of a three-game series.

The A’s have won only two of their last six games, but they salvaged the finale of a three-game series in Philadelphia on Thursday with a 12-1 victory. They hammered four home runs, including the 11th of the season from Shea Langeliers, who was reinstated from the paternity list earlier in the day.

“Pretty remarkable night for him to come back and just jump right back in to where he left off really,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said. “The at-bats were great. Obviously, he has been a big part of our offense.”

The Orioles are returning from a 2-5 road trip, which ended with a 4-3 loss at Miami on Thursday when the Marlins scored the winning run with two outs in the ninth.

In Baltimore’s last six defeats, the Orioles averaged three runs per game.

“Hitting is hard,” Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said. “Big-league pitching is extremely tough every single night, and our guys have the ability to not give in. Some nights you string hits together, some nights you don’t.”

The Orioles will send right-hander Kyle Bradish (1-4, 5.03 ERA) to the mound on Friday. He has gone 0-2 across his past four starts, including giving up two homers and five runs in four innings during a 9-4 loss to the New York Yankees on Saturday.

In his lone previous matchup vs. the A’s, he got a win after striking out eight in six scoreless innings back in 2023.

Left-hander Jacob Lopez (2-2, 6.60 ERA) will get the call for the Athletics. He was charged with six runs in 5 1/3 innings in a 14-6 defeat against the visiting Cleveland Guardians on Saturday. He has worked at least five innings in each of his past four starts.

Lopez has faced Baltimore just once, pitching four innings and yielding only one run, which was unearned, during a no-decision in a home game last June.

The Orioles hope the return home can spark a offensive resurgence for shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who remains in the leadoff spot despite a .201 batting average. Albernaz continues to express confidence that Henderson isn’t far from breaking out.

“With Gunnar, he’s trying to do too much,” Albernaz said. “When he’s trying to do too much, it’s kind of overcompensating with his body a little bit. Now he has to make his decision earlier (at the plate). I firmly believe here in the next few more games he’s going to be back to himself.”

Albernaz gave Adley Rutschman the night off Thursday in an effort to keep the catcher fresh. Rutschman spent time on the injured list last month due to an ankle ailment, so the coaching staff remains cognizant of his workload.

“He has played a lot,” Albernaz said, “so recover and be ready to go when we get back home. That’s always the balance of this schedule, playing 162 games, picking the spots where guys get their days (off). … We just want to be smart about it. This is just me being overly cautious.”

The Orioles are finding ways to mix up their outfield combinations. Much of that involves Colton Cowser because of his versatility.

“We’re definitely excited about his ability to play elite defense at all three (spots in the outfield),” Albernaz said.

–Field Level Media

The Tampa Bay Rays will look to keep on keeping on in Boston this weekend.

After locking up an 8-4 series-opening win on Thursday, the Rays will shoot for their eighth straight victory and 14th in 15 games when a four-game set against the Red Sox continues on Friday.

The numbers surrounding Tampa Bay’s recent run of play are impressive.

Though the Rays’ pitching staff allowed more than three runs for the first time in 14 games on Thursday, the offense pounded out 13 hits. Tampa Bay took the lead for good on Chandler Simpson’s pinch-hit two-run single in the sixth inning before adding three runs over the final two innings.

“I think we know who we are,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We’ve gotten to the point where we understand how we can win games. I’m just really pleased. They should be pleased with themselves, the way they have gone about it and found different ways to win games.”

Simpson was the latest offensive hero despite not being in the starting lineup. By adding an insurance RBI triple in the eighth, he secured his 14th multi-hit game in the Rays’ first 37 contests.

It was also a milestone game for Yandy Diaz, who became the 20th Cuban-born player to reach 1,000 career hits. He doubled and scored on Junior Caminero’s homer in the ninth.

“The camaraderie of everybody, just in all facets of the game — pitching, defense, hitting, power, small ball, on the basepaths — it’s all coming together right now,” Simpson said.

Tampa Bay’s Jesse Scholtens (3-1, 3.18 ERA) is set to take the mound from the start on Friday after earning back-to-back wins behind then-opener Griffin Jax, who started on Thursday. Scholtens worked 5 2/3 innings and yielded five runs in his lone start on April 20 against the Cincinnati Reds.

The 32-year-old right-hander pitched three innings of one-run ball to beat the San Francisco Giants on Saturday in his most recent appearance.

Scholtens is 1-1 with a 1.29 ERA in two career appearances against the Red Sox, both as a reliever.

Boston saw its three-game winning streak — tied for its longest this season — end on Thursday.

A Jarren Duran double in the eighth marked the lone extra-base hit of the game for the Red Sox, who have also gone back-to-back games without a homer.

The day also began in a rough manner as left fielder Roman Anthony was placed on the 10-day injured list due to a sprained right hand. The 21-year-old sustained the injury on Monday against the Detroit Tigers.

“I think just getting the news back, understanding that it’s nothing very serious is the best news that we could have gotten,” Anthony said.

Connelly Early (2-2, 3.79 ERA) will start for the Red Sox on Friday. The left-hander will look to bounce back from a rough Saturday start against the Houston Astros in which he allowed five runs on six hits through four innings, tied for his shortest outing of the season.

Early’s latest start and the Thursday series opener were outlier outings amid a stretch of strong Red Sox starting pitching. The Boston rotation has surrendered three runs or fewer in nine of the past 12 games.

The Rays built a 3-0 lead off rookie Jake Bennett in the second inning with a rally that included three hits (two of them infield hits), a walk and an error.

“The damage in the second is kind of what they do,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said of the Rays. “They’re gonna get people on base, put the ball in play, they’re gonna try bunting.”

Early faced the Rays for the first time in his third major league start on Sept. 21, 2025, when he allowed three runs (two earned) in four innings and took the loss.

–Field Level Media