THE HARD COUNT

Combined record: 62-93. Boston (31-45) and Colorado (31-48) are the two worst teams in baseball, and tonight they collide at the highest, hottest, most chaotic venue in the sport. The board knows it: 10.5 is the highest total on a 15-game slate.

Sonny Gray is the ace marooned on a sinking ship. The veteran right-hander has been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak Red Sox season, and he draws the one park that doesn't care about your stuff. Coors' 1.39 run factor is the highest in MLB, and a 78-degree evening with 10 mph wind means the ball carries. On the other side, Sean Sullivan faces a hostile environment that amplifies every mistake a young arm makes.

The angle here isn't about which bad team wins. It's about whether 10.5 is high enough when two offenses with nothing to lose meet a park that wants to give up runs. When the floor is this low, altitude is the ceiling.

The Dodgers are 50-29 — best record in baseball and on pace for 104 wins. Tonight they visit a Minnesota team that's 38-42 and sending Kendry Rojas to the mound in his first start back from the 15-day IL (activated June 21). On paper, this is a mismatch.

But Mother Nature has other ideas. The hourly forecast shows moderate-to-heavy rain arriving at Target Field right around first pitch, with rain showers persisting through the middle innings. That's rain-delay territory, and delays scramble bullpen plans, compress at-bats, and inject randomness into a game the market has priced as a near-certainty.

The weather is the variable the line hasn't fully absorbed. Wrobleski's regression flags (his xERA ran well above his ERA earlier this season) get louder in wet conditions that affect grip and ball flight. And Rojas, coming off an IL stint, faces an offense that punishes rust. Watch the delay timeline closely.

Brandon Woodruff is back. The Brewers activated their former All-Star right-hander from the 15-day IL yesterday, adding a top-of-rotation arm to a staff that already features Misiorowski, the most dominant pitcher in baseball. Milwaukee (47-29) has the best record in the NL, and now they're deeper.

Woodruff isn't starting tonight — that's Brandon Sproat's job — but his return to the bullpen or a future rotation slot gives manager Pat Murphy a weapon he hasn't had. Meanwhile, the Reds (37-40) activated Pierce Johnson from the 15-day IL and DFA'd Chris Paddack, reshuffling their own pitching staff.

The best team in the NL just got better in the middle of a season where nobody else is keeping pace. The Brewers' 47-29 record is 7 games clear of the next NL team. Woodruff's return is the kind of mid-season addition that makes a great roster unfair.