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Chicago Cubs leadoff man Nick Madrigal and pretty much all Giants hitters not named Joc Pederson will look for improved efforts Saturday when the clubs continue their three-game series in San Francisco.

Madrigal contributed only a walk in his return from Triple-A, but the Cubs benefited from a three-run seventh inning in their 3-2 victory over the Giants on Friday.

Marcus Stroman won a pitchers’ duel against Anthony DeSclafani, helping Chicago halt a four-game losing streak while ending San Francisco’s run of consecutive wins at three.

With the Cubs having scored two or fewer runs in seven of their last 10 games, team management decided the time was right to promote Madrigal. He was batting .488 over an 11-game span with Triple-A Iowa.

Madrigal had hit just .247 in 34 major league games this season before Friday’s game. As manager David Ross put it, Madrigal was sent to the minors to “try and get him back on track.”

The move appears to have worked, even if Friday’s initial returns were an 0-for-3 performance.

“There’s a lot of emotions, especially at first,” Madrigal said of the demotion. “But I felt like I got into a good groove and just really found my swing and the style of play I usually play. It was nice to go down there and just play.”

If Madrigal gets another shot Saturday, chances are it will come against a series of Giants relievers. The team is expected to resort to quantity over quality as it attempts to fill a void left by the injured Alex Wood (back strain).

Right-hander John Brebbia (2-0, 3.65 ERA), who has thrown shutout ball in four of five outings as an opener this season, is expected to start for the Giants on Saturday. He is 1-2 with a 4.66 ERA in 20 career appearances (one start) vs. Chicago.

The Cubs are slated to turn to right-hander Kyle Hendricks (0-2, 4.70), who has not pitched well in his last three starts. He hasn’t received much support, either.

The California native has thrown a total of 15 1/3 innings in those starts, allowing 18 hits. Meanwhile, his teammates have put up only three runs in those contests.

Hendricks is coming off a 5-0 road loss to the San Diego Padres on Monday in which he allowed four runs in six innings. The 33-year-old has gone 5-2 with a 2.29 ERA in 10 career starts against the Giants.

He will face a Giants team that, despite Pederson’s career-high-tying four hits, came crashing back to sea level Friday. San Francisco totaled 21 runs while notching three straight wins against the Colorado Rockies from Tuesday through Thursday.

Asked if his club had lost any momentum in Friday’s two-run, seven-hit effort, San Francisco manager Gabe Kapler simply said, “That’s baseball.”

“You’re going to have some games when you’re not swinging the bat like you want and you’re not putting up crooked numbers like we did in Colorado,” he continued. “Then you have one inning that doesn’t go well (in the field) and you lose a baseball game. You quickly turn the page and get ready to play again tomorrow.”

–Field Level Media

The Houston Astros are exploring their options without designated hitter Yordan Alvarez, who landed on the 10-day injured list due to a right oblique injury on Friday.

The Astros will look to regroup when they continue a three-game series against the host Cleveland Guardians on Saturday.

Yainer Diaz started at DH in place of Alvarez on Friday, when the Astros fell 10-9 to the Guardians in 14 innings. Cleveland won the contest on run-scoring doubles by Tyler Freeman and Will Brennan in the final frame as Houston squandered a lead for the fifth time on the night.

“It’s a marathon,” Brennan said. “Who knew that game would’ve gone 14 innings. Usually those last about until the 10th or 11th. So it’s really important that we kept our minds in it and stuck around and battled. That’s what we do.”

Cleveland has won three straight, while Houston has dropped a season-high four consecutive games.

The Astros will be hard-pressed to replace Alvarez, who was batting .272 with 17 home runs and a major-league-high 55 RBIs in 57 games.

“Guys just have to pick it up,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said. “We still have some horses here. We have some guys who come to play. We’ve just got to tighten our game up. We might have to change our philosophy some since we don’t have that big bat to hit the ball out of the ballpark, but we’ll find a way.”

Diaz, normally a backup catcher, went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI on Friday. Another catcher, Cesar Salazar, also could get additional at-bats in Alvarez’s absence.

Houston will send right-hander J.P. France (1-1, 3.44 ERA) to the mound on Saturday. The 28-year-old rookie received a no-decision after allowing three hits over seven innings of one-run ball against the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday. He had a no-hitter for the first 5 1/3 innings of that contest.

France has settled into the Houston rotation with a 29-to-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his first six career starts covering 34 innings. He will be facing the Guardians for the first time.

“I don’t think you can ever really get comfortable because once you start to get comfortable, that’s when bad stuff tends to happen,” France said. “But once I’m on the field, it kind of feels like home.”

Cleveland will counter with right-hander Triston McKenzie (0-0, 0.00), who is hoping to build on a successful season debut. He returned after being out with a teres major muscle strain and allowed just one hit and one walk while striking out 10 over five scoreless innings against the Minnesota Twins on Sunday.

“I thought that was more than you could expect,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “I mean, he worked so hard and he was diligent in everything. But then you get into a major league game and it’s different. But to see him come out, use all of his pitches, have his fastball have some life through the zone — that flew past encouraging.”

Jose Altuve is 3-for-7 with two homers against McKenzie, who is 2-1 with a 2.84 ERA in three career starts vs. Houston.

Cleveland’s offense has picked up over the past week with Josh Naylor leading the charge. The first baseman is 18-for-36 (.500) with 13 RBIs and 11 runs during his career-high, nine-game hitting streak.

Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez is also on a hot streak, going 6-for-9 with four homers, a double and six RBIs in the past two games.

–Field Level Media

The Tampa Bay Rays will look for their eighth straight win on Saturday when they host the Texas Rangers in the second contest of a three-game series between baseball’s two winningest teams in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The American League East-leading Rays (47-19) cruised to an 8-3 victory over the American League West-leading Rangers (40-22) in the opener.

The Rays got two home runs and a career-high six RBIs from Isaac Paredes, while Tyler Glasnow was terrific on the mound, allowing just a run on one hit to go along with six strikeouts and three walks over six innings on Friday.

The Rangers, who have dropped two straight after winning seven of the previous eight, will need to beat the Rays twice if they are to win their seventh straight series. Tampa Bay is a major-league-best 30-6 at home this season.

The Rays will look to take the series on Saturday behind 22-year-old rookie Taj Bradley (4-2, 3.60 ERA). The right-hander allowed two runs on six hits with six strikeouts and three walks over five innings to pick up a 6-2 win against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.

Bradley has allowed more than three runs just once in seven starts this season. He has 48 strikeouts and just eight walks in 35 innings.

“I’m not the kind of person to get too caught up in anything,” Bradley said. “If I were to meet a celebrity or pitch in a big game, I wouldn’t be making too much of a moment of it. I always downplay things. I mean, you do get your nerves, but I don’t build it up. Someone might say, ‘Oh, you made your debut,’ or ‘Oh, you got a win against the Red Sox,’ but I just go about my day.”

Bradley will have a tough assignment when he faces the Rangers for the first time in his brief career. Texas has scored a major-league-high 389 runs this season (Tampa Bay is second with 380), and the Rangers have scored at least six runs in 12 of their past 25 games.

Texas has scored at least 10 runs in 16 games this season, the best total in the big leagues. The Rays are next with eight double-digit games.

The Rangers will send ace right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (8-2, 2.24) to the mound on Saturday. Eovaldi allowed one hit and no walks over six shutout innings while striking out seven in a 12-3 win over the visiting Seattle Mariners on Sunday.

“Everybody I feel like is groovin’ right now,” Eovaldi said after his latest start. “You can’t say enough about our offense. It just makes my job a little easier to go out there and attack the guys knowing that I’ve got a few runs to play with.”

Eovaldi, who has given up more than one earned run in just one of his past seven starts, hasn’t been nearly as dominant throughout his career against the Rays. He is 5-6 with a 4.04 ERA in 15 appearances, including 13 starts, against Tampa Bay.

–Field Level Media

The Atlanta Braves will use another of their young pitchers on Saturday when they host the Washington Nationals and try to extend their winning streak to seven games.

Atlanta will start rookie Jared Shuster (2-2, 4.99 ERA) against Washington’s MacKenzie Gore (3-4, 3.66) in a battle of left-handers.

The Braves won the opening game of the three-games series 3-2 on Friday by scoring twice in the eighth inning. It was their fifth straight come-from-behind victory. The Nationals took their fifth loss in a row.

Shuster, 24, will follow 20-year-old Braves rookie AJ Smith-Shawver, who pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed two runs, both unearned, in his first major league start on Friday.

Shuster made his major league debut against the Nationals on April 2 and took the loss after allowing four runs in 4 2/3 innings. Shuster made one more start before being sent to Triple-A Gwinnett. He was summoned back to Atlanta in mid-May and was reinserted in the rotation.

Since being recalled, Shuster has made four starts, going 2-1 with a 3.68 ERA. In his latest start, a May 31 win at Oakland, he allowed two runs on three hits with four walks and one strikeout in 5 1/3 innings.

“I think I’m just throwing a lot more strikes,” Shuster said. “A couple more walks (against the A’s), but other than that I got some weak contact, pretty efficient. I think since I’ve been up, I’m just trusting myself more and being more in sync with my deliveries. It helped a lot.”

For Washington, Gore, 24, was a first-round draft choice of the San Diego Padres in 2017 but was shipped to the Nationals as a key piece in the Juan Soto trade last August.

Gore has been a cornerstone of the Washington rotation this season, though he is winless in his past seven starts.

In his most recent outing, last Saturday against the Philadelphia Phillies, Gore pitched six innings and allowed three runs on nine hits and no walks with six strikeouts. His best start came at Kansas City on May 28, when he threw seven innings, his longest outing of the season, and allowed only one run on three hits and one walk while logging a career-high 11 strikeouts.

“Just aggressive,” Gore said. “I want to be the best version of myself. I like executing pitches and doing what I’m supposed to do. Just being aggressive and going at guys, and we’re doing an OK job with that. Just have been throwing some bad pitches that have been homers or just hits that really cost me the last however-it’s-been.”

Gore has made two career starts against the Braves, going 1-0 with a 2.53 ERA. He beat them on April 2 when he gave up one run on three hits over 5 1/3 innings. He walked four and struck out six.

Gore will attempt to slow Atlanta’s Orlando Arcia, who continues to provide key hits. The second baseman drove in two runs on Friday, including what proved to be the game-winner in the eighth.

On the current homestand, Arcia is batting .500 (8-for-16) with a double, a home run and six RBIs, raising his batting average to .324.

–Field Level Media