Rockies now have 10 games at home to get well

As the Rockies open their season-long, 10-game homestand on Friday night against the Orioles, here are three story lines to watch: against one of the majors’ worst teams. With Baltimore (15-35) jockeying with Miami for who will be the worst team in baseball, Colorado must take advantage of a three-game series against what’s essentially a minor-league roster masquerading in the bigs.

The O’s pitching staff epitomizes that futility; it has given up a major league-leading 107 home runs. That’s on pace to easily smash the single-season, majorleague team record of 258 set by the2016Reds. ries against Arizona will give Colorado the chance to leapfrog the Diamondbacks in the division standings, as the Rockies (22-26) are two games back of the thirdplace Snakes heading into the homestand. Colorado dropped two of three to Arizona in the teams’ first meeting this season. Ketel Marte killed Rockies pitching in that series, batting .308 with two home runs and five RBIs. Colorado will face Arizona’s ace — right-handed veteran Zack Greinke — in the series opener. top prospect for the last couple years, Blue Jays third baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. — the son of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero — made his big-league debut April 26 at the Rogers Centre. The 20-year-old scuffled a little bit initially at the dish, but has since found his groove with all five of his home runs in the month of May. With a .945 OPS over parts of four seasons in the minors, Guerrero Jr. certainly would have made his MLB debut sooner had it not been for obvious service time considerations made by the Blue Jays.