Colorado (32-44) at Kansas City (33-43)

Despite struggling against competition from within their own leagues, the Kansas City Royals and Colorado Rockies have enjoyed plenty of success during interleague play.

Each club looks to continue that trend when they open a three-game series Monday night at Kauffman Stadium.

Kansas City (33-43) matched the second-largest comeback in team history by rallying from a seven-run deficit to beat visiting San Francisco 11-10 on Sunday.

“It’s one of those situations of never quitting as far as a mental mindset,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said.

The result gave the Royals - last in the AL Central - their fourth straight winning interleague series while improving to 9-3 against San Francisco, Florida, Arizona and St. Louis this season.

Colorado (32-44), meanwhile, dropped two of three against the New York Mets after falling 3-1 on Sunday, but looks for a sixth straight interleague victory Monday. The Rockies are 7-2 against the AL in 2008.

Since 2006, the teams are a combined 57-33 in interleague play, while Colorado is 5-4 all-time versus Royals. The Rockies, who will make their first appearance in Kansas City, took two of three from the Royals at Coors Field last season.

The Royals scored a combined eight runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings Sunday en route to their seventh win in eight games.

“If you’re in this game and you don’t feel like you can win, you’re probably not in the right business,” said Kansas City rookie infielder Mike Aviles, who had three RBIs and is hitting .328 in 17 games since being called up from the minors.

David DeJesus and Jose Guillen each had two hits and were among seven different Royals to drive in runs Sunday. Kansas City is hitting .287 against NL teams this season.

DeJesus, meanwhile, is batting .406 (13-for-32) with 10 RBIs during his eight-game hitting streak and has hit safely in all seven career contests versus Colorado.

Brian Bannister (6-6, 4.81 ERA) looks for a third straight winning decision when he takes the ball for the Royals. He allowed two runs and nine hits in seven innings of a 3-2 win at St. Louis on Wednesday.

The right-hander allowed three runs in five innings of Kansas City’s 10-5, 12-inning victory over Colorado on May 20, 2007 in his only appearance against the Rockies.

Colorado counters with Jeff Francis (3-6, 5.22), who’ll try to win two in a row after giving up an earned run and five hits in six innings of a 4-2 victory over Cleveland on Wednesday.

“I don’t think I did a lot of things differently than I’ve done,” said Francis, is 1-0 with a 1.88 ERA in two career starts against Kansas City.

After recording 14 hits in a 7-1 win over the Mets on Saturday, the Rockies had just four and went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position Sunday.

“It was a missed opportunity,” said Colorado manager Clint Hurdle, whose club is 12-6 since losing eight in a row.

Yorvit Torrealba’s homer provided the lone run for the Rockies, who are expected to get infielder Clint Barmes back on Monday after he was activated from the disabled list.

Barmes, who missed 27 games with a sprained knee, is hitting .343 with five homers and 20 RBIs in 39 contests this season.

“Hopefully, I can still hit and mix back in with the team, the way they’re playing right now,” Barmes told the Rockies’ official Web site.