Following a sluggish start to their season, the Boston Red Sox will enter Sunday’s rubber game with the visiting Tampa Bay Rays seeking their fifth victory in their last six games.

Although Boston is battling with Baltimore to stay out of the American League East cellar, the Red Sox have surrendered three runs or fewer in nine of their last 13 games. Boston’s pitching staff has a 2.79 ERA during that 13-game span, and the bullpen got a little stronger Saturday.

Before Saturday’s game against Tampa Bay was postponed by rain, the Red Sox announced that reliever Justin Slaten was activated from the injured list after missing more than a month with an oblique strain. Slaten has a 0.00 ERA with five strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings during four appearances this season.

“Another back-end piece that can just lengthen the bullpen out, so it’s big to have him back,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said Saturday. “I think everybody knows when Slaten’s healthy and in there, between him, (setup man Garrett) Whitlock and (closer Aroldis Chapman) we’re going to rely on those guys at the back end of the bullpen, right? It’s like adding an extra guy into a lineup.

“So having that, especially on a day where you look up and all three of them are available, you shorten the game – or you feel like you can. Doesn’t mean they’re invincible, but you feel like you can make it really, really difficult on a team for the last nine outs.”

Slaten had a 4.24 ERA in 36 appearances during an injury-plagued 2025 season, but posted a 2.93 ERA with 58 strikeouts in 55 1/3 innings in 2024, his rookie season.

The Rays and Red Sox split the first two games of what was shortened to a three-game series. Saturday’s postponed game will be made up as part of a day-night doubleheader on July 17.

Pitching hasn’t been an issue for Tampa Bay this season, either. The Rays have gone a franchise-record 15 consecutive games without allowing more than three earned runs. Friday night’s 2-0 loss to Boston ended the team’s seven-game winning streak and was Tampa Bay’s second loss in its last 15 games.

Mason Englert was activated from the injured list Friday and pitched the final 3 1/3 innings of Friday’s loss without allowing a run, but was sent to Triple-A Durham on Saturday.

“Mason did one heck of a job for us,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. “It was unique coming off the IL in that circumstance. His efficiency and strike-throwing allowed him (to go that long) and freshen up the rest of the guys in the bullpen.”

Cash said Saturday’s postponed game won’t alter the team’s rotation, which means right-hander Nick Martinez (3-1, 1.71 ERA) will start Sunday, and Drew Rasmussen, who was originally scheduled to pitch Sunday, will start Monday’s game in Toronto.

Martinez has won his last three starts, giving up two runs in 20 innings. Martinez is 1-3 with a 5.80 ERA in nine career appearances (five starts) against the Red Sox.

Boston will counter with lefty Payton Tolle (1-1, 2.04). Like Martinez, Tolle was scheduled to pitch Saturday.

It will be Tolle’s first career start against Tampa Bay but he did allow a run on two hits in one inning during a relief appearance against the Rays last September.

Sunday’s start will come just over two years after Tolle’s mother, Jina, died following an eight-year battle with colon cancer.

–Field Level Media

The Los Angeles Angels will pin their hopes on Jose Soriano on Sunday afternoon as they aim to avoid a three-game sweep by the host Toronto Blue Jays.

Even though the right-hander did not factor in the decision on April 22 at Anaheim, the Angels went on to defeat the Blue Jays 7-3 in that series finale to avert a three-game sweep.

Soriano allowed no runs and seven hits in five innings in that start. He is 0-0 with a 3.09 ERA in three career games (two starts) against Toronto.

Soriano (5-2, 1.74 ERA) has lost his past two starts, both to the Chicago White Sox.

He surrendered five runs, eight hits and three walks in four innings to Chicago on May 4 in the 6-0 home loss.

“It was just one of those days where you can’t control the strike zone and they put good swings on it, too,” Soriano said after the setback. “It’s a little tough when you face the same team (in consecutive starts) and they already see what you’ve got. But we have to continue to battle. I didn’t have the result, but I battled to the end.”

The Blue Jays have won the first two games of the series, including a 14-1 romp on Saturday. A seven-run fifth inning sealed the deal. The Angels hurt themselves with shoddy fielding.

“It just seemed like everything they touched fell in,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “Maybe better execution, but at the end of the day, you minimize some hard contact. They do a good job of putting the ball in play and they found holes.”

Infielder Adam Frazier doubled in the Angels’ only run of the series as a pinch hitter in the eighth and pitched the bottom of the inning, yielding four runs.

The Blue Jays are scheduled to open with right-hander Spencer Miles (1-0, 3.50) followed by lefty Eric Lauer (1-4, 6.03). Miles has one career outing against the Angels, tossing 1 1/3 scoreless relief innings on April 21, a 4-2 Toronto road win.

Lauer did not figure in the decision on April 22 against the Angels when he started and allowed three runs in five innings. In three career games (two starts) against the Angels, he is 0-0 with a 3.97 ERA.

Right fielder Addison Barger returned to the Blue Jays’ lineup Saturday. He suffered a sprained ankle April 5 that put him on the injured list.

He made his presence felt by taking two walks and throwing out Jorge Soler at home on a strong throw from right field in the second inning after catching Vaughn Grissom’s line drive.

“I was pretty happy,” Barger said. “Throwing the ball from the outfield is one of my favorite things about the game.”

The throw was timed at 101.2 mph, the hardest throw on an outfield assist in the major leagues this season. It is the hardest throw by a Toronto position player in the Statcast era (since 2015).

“He’s got a great arm,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “People know that it’s one thing to have a good arm. It’s another thing to be accurate with it, too.”

Barger was 0-for-3 and is 1-for-22 (.045) in nine games this season. Toronto optioned outfielder Yohendrick Pinango to Triple-A Buffalo in the corresponding move.

One bright spot for the Angels came in the ninth inning when catcher Omar Martinez singled as a pinch hitter in his first major league at-bat. He was recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake on Friday when Travis d’Arnaud (foot) was put on the 10-day injured list.

–Field Level Media

The Philadelphia Phillies will turn to their ace Cristopher Sanchez on Sunday as they look to win their weekend set with the visiting Colorado Rockies.

The Phillies dropped Friday’s opener 9-7 in 11 innings but fought back with a comfortable 9-3 win Saturday to set up the rubber game.

Sanchez (3-2, 2.42 ERA) is coming off his best start of the season, striking out 10 in eight innings of scoreless ball in a 9-1 home victory over the Athletics on May 5. He allowed just three hits – all singles – and walked one as he kept the A’s lineup guessing all night.

Sanchez believes that dominant performance was the result of his constant desire to improve.

“I’m always working on my pitches, I’m always working on my mechanics,” the left-hander told reporters through an interpreter.

“I like to chase perfection.”

Sanchez, 29, locked up his future with Philadelphia, signing a 6-year, $107 million extension March 24. He has faced the Rockies five times in his career, going 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA.

Philadelphia interim manager Don Mattingly added on Sanchez’s great outing last Tuesday, “I’ve seen him throw the ball good all year long — it’s just some of the results haven’t been as good.”

Mattingly likened it to the turnaround the team has undergone since their 9-19 start: “Nothing seemed to be going our way early and now we’ve got it going in a direction that we like.”

Phillies star Bryce Harper left Saturday’s game in the middle of the first inning due to a migraine, but Mattingly said the former two-time MVP might be able to return Sunday.

Winning Sunday would help Colorado stop its own early-season skid. The Rockies haven’t notched a series victory since sweeping the Mets in New York on April 24-26, dropping eight of their last 11 against the Reds, Braves, Mets (in Denver) and the Phillies.

Right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano (3-2, 3.41) is taking the ball for Colorado. He was the losing pitcher in his last start against the Mets on May 4, but he had a no-hitter in that outing through five before giving up four runs in the sixth. The Rockies ultimately fell 4-2.

Colorado manager Warren Schaeffer wasn’t deterred by the result and has taken positives from what he’s seen from Sugano in his first seven starts in Denver. Schaeffer said Sugano’s success comes from “putting the ball where he wants to” and “mixing well.”

The Rockies are getting exactly the pitcher they expected when they signed Sagano to a one-year deal in February, according to Schaeffer.

“The big arsenal that he has is something we desired in the offseason,” Schaeffer said. “He uses it extremely well. He attacks the strike zone, doesn’t walk guys.”

The 36-year-old was with Baltimore last season after playing in his native Japan as a member of the Yomiuri Giants from 2013-24. He won his only previous start against Philadelphia on April 5, allowing one run in six innings.

–Field Level Media