Colorado @ Boston preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 25, 2013 ) Boston 15, Colorado 5

Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz continues to insist that he is retiring at the end of the season despite still being one of the most productive hitters in the league. Ortiz finished a triple shy of the cycle during a 4-for-4 effort on Sunday and tries to keep the hits coming when the Red Sox host the Colorado Rockies in the opener of a three-game interleague series on Tuesday.

Ortiz narrowly missed the triple he needed for the first cycle of his career when a drive to the warning track in center field glanced off the wall and into the stands for his second ground-rule double on Sunday. The 40-year-old designated hitter is batting .329 – one of three Boston players to end the weekend in the top five in the American League in batting average - with 11 home runs and leads the majors with a slugging percentage of .684. Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado is one of the top sluggers in the National League with a slugging percentage of .605 but went 0-for-8 in the last two games at Pittsburgh. Colorado is enduring a brutal stretch with games in 27 straight days after a rain delay of nearly four hours on Sunday ended in a postponement and forced the Rockies to finish up the three-game series with the Pirates on Monday's scheduled off day -- losing 6-3.

TV: 7:10 p.m. ET, ROOT (Colorado), NESN (Boston)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Rockies LH Jorge De La Rosa (1-3, 10.18 ERA) vs. Red Sox LH David Price (6-1, 5.53)

De La Rosa will be activated from the disabled list to make the start and has been out since suffering a groin strain in an outing on April 26. The Mexico native was off to a brutal start before the injury and completed five innings in only one of his first five outings. De La Rosa worked a total of five innings and was charged with eight runs on 11 hits – three home runs – and four walks in his last two starts.

Price has put together two straight solid outings after a brutal stretch and appears to be settling in with Boston. The former Cy Young Award winner yielded a total of three runs and 11 hits while striking out 17 over 14 total innings in the last two outings. Price faced the Rockies twice in interleague play and has yet to come away with a win, going 0-2 with a 5.93 ERA.

WALK-OFFS

1. Red Sox CF Jackie Bradley Jr. has hit safely in 27 straight games – seven short of tying the franchise record.

2. Rockies CF Charlie Blackmon is 22-for-61 over the last 15 games.

3. Boston has homered in a franchise-record 22 straight games.

PREDICTION: Red Sox 10, Rockies 2