Colorado @ Oakland preview

Last Meeting ( Jun 29, 2015 ) Colorado 1, Oakland 7

It is unlikely that Oakland gets involved in the pennant race this season, but defeating sub.-500 teams such as Colorado at home is a must as the Athletics try to make it two straight over the Rockies on Tuesday in the middle contest of their three-game series. Oakland snapped a three-game losing streak with a 7-1 victory Monday and may have also gotten two slumping players going as Josh Reddick and Billy Butler each delivered home runs.

Butler is hitting .233 in June after going 3-for-4 as he appears to have avoided his worst month batting average-wise since hitting .221 in July 2008, while Reddick was mired in a 7-for-37 skid over his last nine games before belting his 11th home run and first in 15 contests. While the last-place Athletics (35-44) are 10 games behind Houston in the American League West, Colorado (33-43) sits in the NL West basement — nine games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers — while riding a three-game losing streak. The Rockies, though, have a pair of hot hitters in Nolan Arenado, the reigning NL Player of the Week who has a 16-game hitting streak — the longest in baseball — and Troy Tulowitzki, who has hit in 13 straight. Colorado's Jorge De La Rosa left his last start with a cut on his left middle finger but appears ready to go and opposes Sonny Gray, who has yielded three or more runs in consecutive turns for the first time in 2015 but still owns the lowest ERA in the AL.

TV: 10:05 p.m. ET, MLB Network, ROOT (Colorado), CSN California (Oakland)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Rockies LH Jorge De La Rosa (4-3, 5.15 ERA) vs. Athletics RH Sonny Gray (9-3, 2.09)

De La Rosa allowed one run, four hits and three walks in five innings before being lifted and earning a no-decision in Colorado's 6-4 victory over Arizona on Thursday. "I thought his (next) start would be in jeopardy," Colorado manager Walt Weiss told reporters about the 34-year-old Mexican, who has dealt with the finger cut and a groin injury for much of the season. "It looks like it closed up in time." De La Rosa is 2-1 with a 1.86 ERA in three road starts this season.

Gray permitted three runs and nine hits in six innings of a 6-3 victory at Texas on Thursday after yielding a season-high six runs (five earned), five hits and three walks in six innings before escaping with a no-decision in a 12-7 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on June 19. The 25-year-old Tennessee native, a strong candidate to be the American League starter in next month's All-Star Game, is 5-1 in his last seven starts and recorded a 1.40 ERA in the five turns preceeding his last two. Gray, who has never faced the Rockies, holds left-handed hitters to a .206 batting average and righties to .204.

WALK-OFFS

1. Athletics CF Billy Burns on Monday went 0-for-4 to snap his 16-game hitting streak — one shy of the Oakland rookie record set by Mike Edwards (1978), Luis Polonia (1987) and Terrence Long (2000).

2. Arenado, who leads the majors with 68 RBIs, is batting .371 with nine home runs and 21 RBIs during his hitting streak.

3. Tulowitzki on Monday set a career high by reaching base for the 28th consecutive contest.

PREDICTION: Athletics 3, Rockies 2