Colorado @ Houston preview

Last Meeting ( Jul 25, 2018 ) Houston 2, Colorado 3

Things could not have gone much worse over the weekend for the Houston Astros, who dropped four straight to the Seattle Mariners to turn the American League West into a three-team race. The Astros will try to stop the bleeding when they host another team battling for postseason position in the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday to open a two-game set.

Houston, which dropped its last eight games at home, fell in extra innings on Sunday to watch its lead over the Mariners drop to 4 1/2 games, with the Oakland Athletics sandwiched in between at two games back. "We know we have a great team," Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, who came off the disabled list on Friday, told reporters. "We know we're going to come through and get out of this scuffle and play great baseball once again." The Rockies did their own damage over the weekend by taking three straight from the Los Angeles Dodgers to pull within one game of the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West and within 2 1/2 games of the Milwaukee Brewers for the second wild card. Colorado will try to extend Houston's home slide with righty German Marquez while the Astros send ace Justin Verlander to the mound.

TV: 8:10 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Colorado), AT&T SportsNet Southwest (Houston)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Rockies RH German Marquez (9-9, 4.69 ERA) vs. Astros RH Justin Verlander (11-7, 2.50)

Marquez struck out a season-high 10 against Pittsburgh on Wednesday but was reached for three runs and 10 hits over six innings and was saddled with a loss. The Venezuela native is eight strikeouts short of matching his career high (147) set in 2017 and punched out at least eight in each of his last three turns. Marquez is seeing the Astros for the first time and is 4-0 with a 2.45 ERA in seven career interleague starts.

Verlander is trying to put a terrible outing behind him after allowing six runs on seven hits over two innings against Seattle on Thursday before being ejected for arguing a balk call. The former MVP owns 206 strikeouts in 158 1/3 innings and punched out 14 over 7 2/3 innings at the Los Angeles Dodgers on Aug. 3. Verlander has dominated interleague play in his career, posting a 33-6 record with a 2.76 ERA in 46 outings.

WALK-OFFS

1. Rockies 3B Nolan Arenado (shoulder) was limited to pinch hitting on Saturday and Sunday and is day-to-day.

2. Houston C Evan Gattis is 0-for-16 in his last seven games.

3. Colorado SS Trevor Story hit safely in each of his last 10 games.

PREDICTION: Astros 4, Rockies 1