Major League Baseball features several matchups on Monday, including a couple of key series with playoff implications. In the NFL, tonight is the premiere of Monday Night Football, which has a great matchup in store. Here’s what’s coming up in tonight’s action.

Rays and Blue Jays Battle for Second Place

The Tampa Bay Rays travel to Toronto to face the Blue Jays in tonight’s first game of an important five-game series. Tampa is coming off a series loss to the AL East-leading New York Yankees after sweeping the Boston Red Sox in four games. Unfortunately, they can’t seem to make up any ground on the Yankees and are still 5.5 games behind them in second place. 

Toronto is a half-game behind the Rays in the standings and has won their last four series after being swept by the Los Angeles Angels at home. They have won ten of the previous 13 games since that last losing streak and hope to take over second place in the division with a win tonight. Toronto trails in the season series against Tampa 6-4.    

Right-hander Cooper Criswell makes his second career Major League start tonight. In his last game, he gave up three runs in 1.1 innings against the San Diego Padres. Jose Berrios starts for Toronto and is 10-5 with a 5.23 ERA this season. 

Toronto gets the victory to take over second place. 

Slumping Cubs Travel to Face Mets

The Chicago Cubs have been going through a difficult stretch recently and now have to face the NL East-leading New York Mets for the final time this season. Chicago has lost two straight and eleven of their last fourteen games and has no chance of making the postseason. They can only hope to spoil the Mets’ goal of winning the division.

The Mets have won four out of five games since losing three straight and lead the Atlanta Braves by a slim 1.5-game margin in the division standings. New York needs to get its third straight victory tonight if they hope to keep the Braves from overtaking them at the top of the division.  

Javier Assad with take the mound for the fourth time this season and is 0-1 with a 2.93 ERA in 15.1 innings. He will face Chris Bassitt for the Mets, who is 13-7 with a 3.24 ERA in 2022. 

The Mets win to break a two-game home losing streak. 

Broncos Meet Seahawks in Western Showdown

The Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks meet in Week 1 of the NFL season for Monday Night Football at Lumen Field. Former Seahawks QB Russell Wilson will make his 2022 debut with Denver against his old team tonight and will surely hear the boos rain down when he takes the field. The Broncos can tie the Los Angeles Rams and Kansas City Chiefs for the early division lead with a victory.   

Seattle makes its home debut with QB Geno Smith at the helm after he beat out Drew Lock for the starting job. They hope their defense is improved from last season when they were at the bottom of the rankings in passing. However, they were seventh in the league in passing touchdowns allowed in 2021. They only need a victory tonight to take over first place in the NFC West, as the other teams all took a loss in Week 1. 

The Broncos win convincingly on the road.