David Price benefited early on from the Boston Red Sox's season-long scoring binge, but he hasn't needed much help lately.

Price vies for a third consecutive victory and Jackie Bradley Jr. puts a more impressive streak on the line when Boston attempts to add to the Colorado Rockies' interleague woes in Tuesday night's opener of a three-game series.

After recording an uncharacteristic 6.75 ERA that belied a 4-1 record through his first seven starts in a Red Sox uniform, Price has looked more like the pitcher who's earned a Cy Young Award and five All-Star appearances in his last two. He struck out 12 while limiting Houston to a run over 6 2/3 innings May 12 and held Kansas City to two runs over 7 1/3 in Wednesday's 5-2 victory.

"I felt like that's the best I've commanded all my pitches from the beginning until I was taken out," Price told MLB's official website following his last outing. "That's definitely a step in the right direction."

Price (6-1, 5.53 ERA) has been well-supported by an offense that tops the majors with 256 runs and a .296 average, having received an AL-high 8.46 runs per nine innings. Boston (27-17) has been especially prolific at Fenway Park, where it's averaged 8.4 runs and hit .346 in winning 11 of 13.

David Ortiz led the latest barrage by going 4 for 4 with a homer and three RBIs in Sunday's 5-2 win over Cleveland. The 40-year-old slugger, who ended a triple away from his first career cycle, is hitting .358 with eight homers and 21 RBIs over a 20-game stretch.

''Wish he would have retired last year,'' said Indians manager Terry Francona, Ortiz's former skipper in Boston. ''He's kind of on a different level right now. It looks like he's playing softball.''

Bradley singled in the fifth inning to extend his hitting streak to 27 games, one shy of matching the fifth-longest in team history, and Xander Bogaerts increased his to 16 with three hits and an RBI.

Bradley is batting .408 with eight homers and 29 RBIs during his run, while Bogaerts is hitting .403 over his streak.

Boston's offensive prowess has Jorge De La Rosa (1-3, 10.18) finding himself in a tough spot as he makes his return from a month-long stint on the disabled list. The veteran left-hander had allowed 23 earned runs in 20 1/3 innings in five starts prior to straining his left groin April 26.

De La Rosa prepped for this assignment by throwing 94 pitches in a seven-inning rehab start for Triple-A Albuquerque on Thursday.

"I threw a lot of strikes and went to the seventh," he said. "The fastball wasn't the only thing I was working on. I was working on a lot of things."

He has a 7-3 record and 3.23 ERA in 14 interleague starts during his nine-year tenure with the Rockies, though Colorado (21-22) has had little success against the AL of late. The Rockies went 5-15 in interleague play last season and are 19-56 since 2012, easily the majors' worst mark. They've lost 23 of 28 in AL parks.

Colorado makes its first visit to Boston since 2013 having lost four of five on its road trip. It's coming off Monday's 6-3 defeat to Pittsburgh in which the Pirates scored all their runs in the first three innings off Jordan Lyles.

The Rockies did receive a positive result from the struggling Carlos Gonzalez, who had two hits after going 2 for 32 over his previous 10 games.