Arizona Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen hasn’t allowed a run in his previous four starts as he carries a 28-inning scoreless streak into his start against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.

It won’t be easy for Gallen to keep the streak alive, though. The Rangers are coming off one of the most impressive offensive performances of the season, routing the Yankees 15-2 on Sunday afternoon in Texas.

The 15 runs were the most runs scored on the Yankees since the 2019 season.

As Rangers slugger Josh Jung said when asked about what the offense showed, “The potential we have every night. If we can do that day in and day out, that’s like October baseball stuff.”

How Gallen fares against the Rangers’ offense is among the top storylines going into this two-game series between the teams at Globe Life Field.

Another angle to keep an eye on is the status of D-backs standout outfielder Corbin Carroll (left knee). Carroll crashed into the left-field wall at Coors Field on Saturday and did not play Sunday. Carroll told reporters that he hoped he’d be sidelined for just a couple of days.

As far as Gallen, this will be his second start against the Rangers. He allowed three runs on six hits with eight strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings in a loss Sept. 7, 2021.

The Rangers counter with right-hander Jon Gray, who is 5-7 with a 5.60 ERA over 18 career starts against the Diamondbacks. Gray allowed three runs over six innings in the Rangers’ loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday.

The Rangers were in the midst of what became a four-game losing streak during Gray’s previous start, but things have turned for the better. The Rangers closed their series with the Yankees with three straight victories, including Sunday’s rout.

“It was important that we bounce back and show that we have that capability,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said.

Arizona has won four of its last six games. The D-backs had a disappointing 12-4 loss to end a series at the Colorado Rockies on Sunday, but they put together a solid April by going 16-13.

“These guys play hard,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said after the series. “And I’m proud of what they did. They came in here and won a series. Like I said, there’s no throwaway games. To get to where we have to get to we have to find a way to play better on a Sunday day game. We’ll figure that out. But we won two out of three in a pretty uneven environment. It’s always scary coming in here. So we want them to enjoy the off-day (Monday), and we’re onward to Texas.”

Texas and Arizona were both off Monday. Tuesday will mark the first meeting between the two since the 2021 season.

Arizona bench coach Jeff Banister will be in the visiting dugout at a Rangers game for the first time since he was fired as manager of the team late in the 2018 season. Banister went 325-313 over his four seasons with the Rangers (2015-18), managing the club when it played at its previous home across the street from Globe Life Field in what is now called Choctaw Stadium.

–Field Level Media

The Los Angeles Dodgers activated shortstop Miguel Rojas from the 10-game injured list prior to Monday’s home game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Rojas, 34, missed the past 10 games due to a left hamstring strain. He was struggling with a .125 average (4-for-32) prior to the injury.

The Dodgers acquired Rojas from the Miami Marlins in the offseason in exchange for minor league infielder Jacob Amaya.

Rojas has a .259 career average with 39 homers and 269 RBIs in 966 games over 10 seasons. He first reached the majors with the Dodgers in 2014 before spending the next eight seasons with the Marlins.

Los Angeles designed catcher Austin Wynns for assignment in a corresponding move. Wynns was 2-for-11 (.182) in five games with the Dodgers. He also went 0-for-2 in one game for the San Francisco Giants earlier this season.

Overall, Wynns has a .229 career average with 12 homers and 53 RBIs in 186 games over five seasons with the Baltimore Orioles (2018-19, 2021), Giants (2022-23) and Dodgers.

–Field Level Media

Originally expected to be out until July, Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper reportedly has been cleared to return on Tuesday.

The two-time National League MVP received the green light on Monday just 159 days after Tommy John surgery, ESPN reported.

He is expected to be in the Phillies’ lineup as the designated hitter Tuesday against the host Los Angeles Dodgers.

Harper had an appointment on Monday with Dr. Neal ElAttrache, an orthopedic surgeon who serves many pro athlete clients. Apparently he received good news as he posted pictures of himself on Instagram with the caption “Aye Pham. You ready?”

Harper had surgery on his right elbow in November and the Phillies had hoped he’d be back sometime before the All-Star break.

The Phillies avoided putting Harper on the 60-day injured list at the outset of the 2023 season, even though an early May return exceeded all expectations.

“He’s pretty geeked up about getting out there and playing,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson told reporters before the Phillies’ series finale at the Houston Astros on Sunday night. “He’s itching.”

The Phillies plan to use Harper as a DH so he doesn’t have to use his arm throwing balls from the outfield. The team also has been working him out at first base in case he can return to the field there this season, though outfield play has mostly been ruled out for 2023.

Harper won MVP in 2015 with the Washington Nationals and in 2021 with the Phillies. In four seasons since signing a megadeal with the Phillies in February 2019, Harper has batted .282 with 101 home runs and 296 RBIs. He has a career .280 batting average and a .523 slugging percentage with 285 homers and 817 RBIs in 1,382 career games over 11 major league seasons.

Harper played in 99 games last season and was named an All-Star for the seventh time, but he was diagnosed with a partially torn UCL in his throwing arm in May and played through it — again as a DH. He also suffered a fractured thumb and missed most of July and August following surgery. He came back in time for the stretch run and helped the Phillies reach the World Series, where they fell to the Astros.

Harper batted .286 in 2022 with 18 home runs, 28 doubles and 65 RBIs.

–Field Level Media

After capping their 10-19 April with a 2-8 West Coast trip, the Cardinals will try to regroup this week during their six-game homestand.

They hope that process will begin Tuesday when they open a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals entered May in the National League Central cellar, 10 games out of first place. That represented their worst start since the 1907 season.

“We didn’t play well. That’s basically it,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “There’s enough talking in circles about it. We need to play better and we need to win. That’s the bottom line. I could give you three to five different things but at the end of the day we need to put more in the win column. That’s it.”

St. Louis suffered just about every imaginable breakdown on its last road trip, including lost production from key hitters. Third baseman and usual cleanup hitter Nolan Arenado drove in just one run and had no extra-base hits.

“It’s hard to speak on what we need to do when I feel like I’m not playing my part the way I should,” Arenado told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “A lot of that falls on me. I’ve just been poor and have been really poor thus far. I think it’s just a mixture of things. Like when things are going bad, every little mistake we make — it haunts us. And we’re playing not to make a mistake, instead of playing freely.”

The Cardinals threw 15 wild pitches last month and committed 14 errors in the last 20 games.

On Tuesday the Cardinals will start left-hander Steven Matz (0-3, 6.23 ERA), who lasted just four innings in his last start, a 7-3 loss at San Francisco. He allowed two runs on six hits and three walks in his shortest outing of the season.

Matz will be making his first career start against the Angels, who came to St. Louis after losing two of three games to the Brewers over the weekend at Milwaukee.

Los Angeles will turn to left-hander Patrick Sandoval (2-1, 3.16), who will make his first career appearance against St. Louis. In his last start Sandoval allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits in seven innings in an 11-3 victory over the Oakland A’s.

He struck out five and didn’t issue a walk in his longest outing of the season. That was a nice rebound from his previous start, when he allowed five runs on four hits and six walks in a loss to the New York Yankees.

Shohei Ohtani paced the Angels’ offense in April with 18 RBIs and seven homers, including a sky-high, 413-foot blast Sunday.

“I kept waiting for it to hit somewhere up on the scoreboard,” manager Phil Nevin said. “I haven’t seen many like that. He’s special, and we see something new each day with him.”

An early Angels concern is relief pitching. Left-hander Jose Quijada (elbow) went on the injured list over the weekend and Los Angeles suffered seven blown saves in 18 opportunities in April.

But Carlos Estevez closed out the last two innings Sunday to earn his sixth save in six tries.

–Field Level Media

The Washington Nationals placed right-hander Chad Kuhl on the 15-day injured list Monday.

Kuhl, 30, was diagnosed with metatarsalgia in his right foot. The designation is retroactive to Sunday.

Kuhl is 0-2 with a 9.41 ERA in four starts in his first year with the Nationals. He has walked 18 batters in 22 innings.

Washington recalled right-hander Cory Abbott from Triple-A Rochester in a corresponding move.

Abbott, 27, is 1-3 with a 6.46 ERA through five starts this season with the Red Wings.

–Field Level Media

Sean Murphy hit a pair of three-run homers and the visiting Atlanta Braves hung on to beat the New York Mets 9-8 in the first game of a doubleheader on Monday.

Atlanta has won the first two games of the series and five of its last six games. New York has lost six of its last seven.

Murphy went deep in the first and seventh innings, giving him eight for the season. It was his third career multi-home run game. He was 2-for-4 and matched his career high with six RBIs.

Atlanta starter Spencer Strider (4-0) pitched five innings and allowed four runs on five hits, three walks and eight strikeouts. It ended a nine-game streak of at least nine strikeouts, two short of the major league record set by Nolan Ryan in 1977.

A.J. Minter pitched the ninth and earned his sixth save, despite allowing a two-out pinch-hit home run to Eduardo Escobar. Brett Baty lined out hard to right field to end the game.

New York’s Denyi Reyes (0-1) pitched one-plus inning as the opener and allowed five runs on five hits — two of them homers — with one walk and one strikeout.

The Braves hit four home runs, also getting a two-run shot from Kevin Pillar and a solo homer from Ronald Acuna Jr., which was measured at 448 feet and landed in the front row of the upper deck. The power surge gave Atlanta a 6-1 lead that it never relinquished.

The Mets scored in the first inning on an RBI single from Francisco Lindor and added a three-run shot from Pete Alonso, his 11th, in the third inning. It was Alonso’s first homer since April 21, moving him into a tie for the league lead, and it trimmed the lead to 6-4.

A solo homer by New York’s Baty in the sixth cut the lead to one run, but Murphy’s second blast put Atlanta ahead 9-5.

The Mets scored twice in the seventh. Shortstop Vaughn Grissom threw away the return throw to first base on a double-play attempt that allowed Alonso to score from second. Lindor scored ahead of Alonso from third.

–Field Level Media

The Baltimore Orioles open Tuesday’s series against the Kansas City Royals with the clubs headed in opposite directions.

The Orioles continue their season-long, 10-game road trip having won six straight series, their best streak since 2014.

“We go game-to-game, series-to-series,” manager Brandon Hyde said after the 3-1 series win at Detroit. “We’ve done a great job with that.”

After winning 11 of 13, Baltimore improved to 19-9 for its best start since 1997.

Ryan Mountcastle and Jorge Mateo lead a balanced Orioles’ attack with six homers apiece, while Mountcastle and Cedric Mullins lead with 21 RBIs.

Mateo has hit safely in 11 of 12 while scoring in a career-best seven consecutive games, the longest active streak in the American League.

Reliever Yennier Cano extended his hitless and walkless streaks to 11 innings. Only a hit batsman reached safely as he retired 32 of 33 batters.

“He’s throwing bowling balls up there,” Hyde said. “They haven’t taken good swings off him yet, so hopefully he can keep it going for a while.”

“I know my stuff is good,” Cano told MLB.com after securing his second save Sunday. “It was just a matter of finding the strike zone and finding a way to work through it.”

Right-hander Tyler Wells (1-1, 2.79 ERA) makes his eighth start of the year. He collected his first win Wednesday, allowing two runs in 5 2/3 innings against Boston.

Wells, who leads the majors with a 0.724 WHIP, made his only two career starts against Kansas City in 2022, going six innings each while winning both games.

The Royals are in a 3-14 slide, falling to the bottom of the American League Central with baseball’s second-worst record. The 7-22 start matches their worst in club history.

“It’s one day at a time,” said first-year manager Matt Quatraro. “Just because the month changes doesn’t mean you should change your mindset or anything like that. The guys are doing a good job of coming in every day ready to work and ready to compete.”

Kansas City opens a season-long, 10-game homestand, but a return to Kauffman Stadium is not particularly encouraging for the Royals as they have been outscored 81-32 while losing 12 of 13 home games.

Kansas City’s 96 runs are second fewest behind Detroit. Shut out six times, the Royals are last in the majors with a .624 on-base-plus-slugging-percentage.

Vinnie Pasquantino’s five homers lead the club.

“We’re trying to look for anything here to flip the script from April,” Pasquantino told MLB.com after Sunday’s 8-4 loss at Minnesota. “Whether that’s a new month, a homestand, anything.”

Edward Olivares’ career-best nine-game hitting streak provides a bright spot.

“In the past, I’ve swung at too many balls,” said Olivares, who reached safely eight times in three games at Minnesota. “It’s not good. But now I’m focused on swinging at the pitch I can hit.”

Left-hander Ryan Yarbrough (0-3, 6.35 ERA) will make his second start after throwing 77 pitches over four innings in his previous start Wednesday at Arizona.

The Orioles are a familiar opponent for Yarbrough; he is 5-3 with a 3.72 ERA in 16 appearances (nine starts). He went six innings, allowing one run on four hits and no walks, fanning eight on July 28 at Baltimore.

–Field Level Media

After emphatically ending a 10-game losing streak on Sunday, the Chicago White Sox now seek to string together consecutive wins for the first time this season.

Can a seven-run, ninth-inning rally against the Tampa Bay Rays — capped by Andrew Vaughn’s walk-off, three-run homer — propel Chicago to sustained success, starting with Tuesday’s visit from the Minnesota Twins?

Right-hander Mike Clevinger thinks so.

“That was almost more beneficial for us as a club than if we went out there and put up 12 in the first,” he said. “That’s the morale booster we need.”

A jolt should be coming to the lineup, too, as the team expects shortstop Tim Anderson to return Tuesday. He’s been sidelined since April 10 with a left knee sprain.

The White Sox ended a rough April by salvaging a game against the Rays, who boast the best record in the major leagues.

Now comes a challenge from American League Central rival and division leader Minnesota, which took two of three from the visiting White Sox from April 10-12. Each game was decided by one or two runs.

Minnesota regrouped from consecutive losses to Washington to start a 10-game homestand, winning six of the next eight.

A seven-run outburst — albeit in the third — also boosted the Twins on Sunday. Byron Buxton smacked a three-run home run to punctuate the inning that helped Minnesota to an 8-4 victory against Kansas City.

Buxton debuted the Twins’ new home run celebration moments after the blast, donning a vest emblazoned with “Land of 10,000 Rakes,” a nod to the Minnesota state slogan “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Buxton also grabbed a toy fishing pole for good measure.

“It’s something unique that makes up our team and stands for Minnesota,” Buxton said.

White Sox Tuesday starter Michael Kopech (0-3, 7.01 ERA) has kept opponents relatively reeled in since surrendering five home runs in his season debut April 3.

Kopech limited Tampa Bay and Toronto to one home run in 10 innings over his past two starts but was hit hard nonetheless. He allowed four runs and six hits in Wednesday’s road loss to the Blue Jays while matching his season low with four strikeouts.

Minnesota will counter with right-hander Joe Ryan (5-0, 2.81), who defeated the New York Yankees on April 25 to become the fifth pitcher in franchise history to begin a season 5-0.

Ryan spaced two runs (one earned) and seven hits in seven innings with zero walks and seven strikeouts. The Twins have won his past nine starts.

“Really, from the day Joe has shown up here, he’s given us a chance to win, it feels like every game,” Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The days he’s sharp, he’s really good. The days where he might be less sharp, he finds ways to stick around, generally, and give you a chance.”

Ryan took a no-decision against the White Sox in his only previous appearance against them last season, allowing three runs (two earned) and five hits in a road start on July 6.

Kopech is 2-1 with a 3.74 ERA in eight career games against the Twins, including four starts, with 22 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings.

–Field Level Media

It’s probably not what many would have expected a month ago looking at the series between the Tampa Bay Rays and visiting Pittsburgh Pirates that gets under way Tuesday. But here it is: This is a clash between the two best teams in baseball.

Pittsburgh, with the second-best record in the majors behind the Rays, is easily the bigger surprise in that conversation. The Pirates are coming off back-to-back, 100-loss seasons and are supposed to be rebuilding.

Tampa Bay was a wild-card team last year and is chasing its sixth straight winning season and fifth straight playoff appearance.

Pittsburgh had its four-game winning streak halted Sunday in a 7-2 loss at Washington but has won 11 of its past 13.

“We’re talking about the best team in baseball,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Tampa Bay. “We’re going to have to go in there and play well.

“I think our guys embrace everything. They really do a good job. … We’re going into Tampa, and we need to play good baseball.”

The Rays also are coming off a loss, a ninth-inning bullpen meltdown that allowed the Chicago White Sox to win 12-9 Sunday, but they had won the first three games of the series against Chicago.

With just six losses, Sunday’s setback really stung.

“Obviously, we’ve been rolling and we expect to win,” said Tampa Bay reliever Jalen Beeks, who took the loss Sunday. “That’s kind of the feeling, so this is pretty frustrating.”

Drew Rasmussen, who started Sunday’s game and gave up three runs in five innings to seem to be set up for a win, remained philosophical.

“Over the course of the first month, I think we’ve put ourselves in good position,” Rasmussen said. “Yeah, (Sunday’s game) is hard. It’s tough. It (stinks).

“But it is one of those things where we played pretty well over the course of this first month (to the point that) we’re in a pretty good spot right now. We’ll use the off day (Monday) and we’ll come back Tuesday ready to compete.”

The three games could serve as a measuring stick for both clubs.

“We respect them a lot,” Pittsburgh general manager Ben Cherington said of the Rays. “It’s really a good team we’ll be facing. We’re excited to go in there and match up with them. I know we’ll be prepared and play hard.

“They’ve been successful for a while now,” he continued about the Rays. “In a lot of ways, I think they’re a model for a team like ours.”

The only teams the Pirates have faced that don’t have a losing record are Boston, Houston and the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are 6-3 against those teams.

Tampa Bay has played series against three teams that don’t have a losing record in Boston, Toronto and Houston. The Rays are 6-4 in those games.

Pittsburgh right-hander Roansy Contreras (3-1, 3.58 ERA) is projected to start Tuesday, while the Rays have not announced a probable starter.

Contreras is coming off a win Wednesday against the Dodgers when he pitched six scoreless, two-hit innings.

In his only game against Tampa Bay, Contreras started last June 26 and gave up one run in five innings but did not get a decision.

–Field Level Media