The Cleveland Guardians seem to be hitting their stride, which is a bad sign for the struggling Texas Rangers ahead of the teams’ doubleheader scheduled for Tuesday in Cleveland.

The original series opener was postponed on Monday due to inclement weather. The teams will play a traditional doubleheader on Tuesday starting at 3:10 p.m. Eastern.

The Guardians enter the series on a good note, having won five of their last six games and six of eight.

They are also 17-13 since April 29 and are one game below .500 at 24-25. The Guardians hope to reach the .500 mark for the first time since May 14 when they were 16-16.

One of Cleveland’s hottest pitchers will throw in the first game, as right-hander Cal Quantrill (2-3, 3.52 ERA) makes the start. This will be his first career start against the Rangers, even though he has faced them twice in relief and has not given up an earned run.

He will oppose right-hander Jon Gray (1-2, 4.83), who has never faced the Guardians. The eight-year veteran has been on the injured list twice this season, with a left knee sprain and a blister on his right middle finger.

Gray comes off his best outing of the season, when he fanned 12 over seven innings on one-run, three-hit ball vs. the Tampa Bay Rays. That start was one of only two this season at home for Gray, where his strikeout rate is nearly double than on the road (14.2 strikeouts per nine innings at home, compared to 7.6 on road).

This will be Gray’s team-high seventh road start of 2022, where he is 0-2 with a 5.40 ERA. Gray has gone winless (0-3, 6.44) in his last eight starts on the road, dating back to Sept. 14, 2021, at Atlanta when he pitched for the Colorado Rockies.

The Rangers have lost four of their last five games. However, Texas finished 17-10 in May, its first winning month since June 2019.

Texas has gone 8-18 vs. Cleveland since the start of the 2017 season, its lowest winning percentage (.308) against any AL team in that span.

The Rangers matched their season high with four home runs on Sunday in a 6-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners. Texas has homered in a season-high nine consecutive games.

Marcus Semien has three homers in his last nine games. He started the season without a home run in his first 43 games.

Rangers manager Chris Woodward said his team was “a little bit unlucky” in the loss to Seattle on Sunday.

“We had a chance to win,” he said. “We gave them a lot of freebies. It was a good learning experience.”

It will be a battle of left-handers in the second game of the doubleheader, as Guardians rookie Konnor Pilkington (1-0, 2.65) will face Taylor Hearn (3-4, 5.48).

Pilkington has never faced Texas. Hearn is 1-0 with a 5.40 ERA in one career start against Cleveland.

The Guardians are hoping to send right-hander Aaron Civale, on the IL with a left glute pull, on a rehab assignment soon.

Starting catcher Austin Hedges, who has a sore left hip, could be back in the lineup Tuesday. He missed Sunday’s game in Baltimore.

Reliever James Karinchak, who has yet to pitch in the majors this year due to arm problems, pitched one-third of an inning Wednesday for Class AAA Columbus.

Cleveland is taking its time with designated hitter Franmil Reyes, who pulled a hamstring on May 26. Manager Terry Francona said he’s doing “terrific.” He said there’s no timetable for his return.

“We want to set him up for success going forward,” Francona said.

–Field Level Media

Rookie Hunter Greene was nearly perfect, allowing only a leadoff bunt single over seven shutout innings as the Cincinnati Reds blanked the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks 7-0 in a rain-shortened game Monday night.

The contest was halted in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Kyle Farmer and Tyler Stephenson each had two hits and two RBIs and Brandon Drury had two hits, including his team-leading 10th homer, as the Reds snapped a three-game losing streak.

Greene, who held the Pittsburgh Pirates hitless for 7 1/3 innings on May 15, overpowered the Diamondbacks, striking out eight and walking none for the second straight start.

Greene (3-7) also struck out eight and walked none at Boston on Wednesday. But on that night, he lost his command in the fourth inning, allowing the first five batters to reach and taking the loss in a 7-1 defeat to the Red Sox.

On Monday, Greene had no such trouble with the Diamondbacks, allowing only Daulton Varsho’s bunt single to start the game. Varsho was caught stealing as Josh Rojas struck out, starting a string of 20 straight batters retired by Greene.

The Reds scored in the first inning for their fifth straight game, coinciding with the beginning of their homestand. With one out, Drury drove a pitch from starter Madison Bumgarner (2-5) to the seats in right-center for a 1-0 Cincinnati lead.

In the first five games of their eight-game homestand, the Reds have scored a total of 11 runs in the first inning.

Joey Votto doubled after Drury’s homer, giving him 800 career extra-base hits. Following Votto’s double, Bumgarner had words with plate umpire Dan Merzel over the strike zone while angrily tossing away baseballs because he didn’t like the grip.

Bumgarner posted his sixth straight start of at least five innings but lost his fourth straight decision, allowing four runs on eight hits in five innings. The Diamondbacks lost their third straight game.

Nick Senzel singled home Alejo Lopez in the second. In the fifth, Farmer’s double to center in front of a sliding Alek Thomas, who let the ball get past him, scored Votto and Stephenson for a 4-0 Cincinnati lead.

Torrential rains began as Cincinnati was pouring it on with hits against reliever Taylor Widener in the seventh. Instead of covering the field, the umpires allowed play to continue.

With Aristides Aquino at the plate and three runs already in, the game was stopped and did not resume.

–Field Level Media