(Sports Network) - A pair of American League East rivals will get together for the first time this season tonight at Baltimore's Camden Yards, where the Orioles start up a brief two-game series with the mildly-slumping Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox, though, will be without manager Terry Francona for this series due to the death of his mother-in-law. Bench coach Brad Mills will manage the team in his absence.

Boston heads into the Charm City after suffering three losses in four games to Minnesota, including Monday's 7-3 setback at the Metrodome. The Red Sox jumped out to an early lead with three first-inning runs, but were then shut down by Livan Hernandez and a pair of Twins relievers the rest of the way.

Manny Ramirez followed a David Ortiz RBI single with his 498th career home run to give Boston a 3-0 advantage, and finished 2-for-4 on the evening. The slugger had sat out Sunday's 9-8 loss to the Twins with a sore hamstring.

The Red Sox collected 12 hits as a team last night, but stranded 10 baserunners to fall to 4-4 on their current 10-game road trip.

Clay Buchholz (2-3) took the loss for Boston after surrendering seven runs and eight hits in just 4 1/3 innings.

The division-leading Red Sox will attempt to get back on track tonight against a Baltimore club they have dominated in recent years. Boston is 32-9 over its last 41 meetings with the Orioles and has amassed an impressive 16-5 record at Camden Yards during that stretch.

The Sox will also have ace Josh Beckett on the mound for this evening's opener. Like his team, the hard-throwing righty has enjoyed plenty of success when facing Baltimore, as his 4-1 record and 2.95 earned run average in six career starts will attest. He's also a perfect 4-0 with a 2.05 ERA in four lifetime appearances at Camden Yards.

Beckett brings a personal two-game win streak into tonight's matchup as well, which he extended with an excellent outing at Detroit on Thursday. He held the Tigers to just one run and six hits while striking out eight over seven strong innings, and did not issue a walk in Boston's 5-1 triumph.

Baltimore had Monday off to recover from a 10-game road trip in which the team compiled a 4-6 record. The O's did their best work on the final leg of the trek, taking three of four games from Kansas City over the weekend. However, the Royals averted a series sweep by recording a 4-0 victory in Sunday's finale.

The Orioles mustered only two hits during Brian Bannister's eight innings of work for Kansas City, both coming on singles from Guillermo Quiroz and Luke Scott.

Brian Burres (3-4) worked the first six innings for Baltimore and allowed four runs on nine hits to receive the loss.

Jeremy Guthrie gets the starting assignment for the Orioles this evening and is in search of his first victory at home since July 27 of last season. The right-hander snapped a string of 15 straight starts without a win when he defeated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim with seven innings of two-run ball on May 2, but failed to back up that performance in an encounter at Oakland this past Wednesday.

Against the Athletics, Guthrie was touched for four runs over 5 2/3 innings and did not factor in the decision of his team's 6-5 loss.

The former first-round draft pick recorded three no-decisions against Boston last season, but he's posted a solid 2.61 ERA in his four matchups with the Red Sox, three of which have come in a starting role.