(Sports Network) - Bartolo Colon attempts to win his third consecutive start off the disabled list tonight for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, who will be aiming to continue their recent dominance of the Kansas City Royals.

After missing nearly nine months to rehab a partially torn right rotator cuff, Colon returned to a major-league mound on April 21 and delivered an outstanding performance against the Seattle Mariners. The former American League Cy Young winner allowed just one run on seven hits to lead the Angels to a 7-6 victory.

Colon was even more impressive against Tampa Bay on Thursday, as he struck out 11 Devil Rays and gave up only two runs and four hits in seven innings of his team's 11-3 triumph.

The veteran right-hander owns a 13-7 career record with a 4.74 earned run average in 23 career starts against Kansas City, although he lost his only outing versus the Royals last season. That came in Kauffman Stadium on July 21, when Colon surrendered four runs -- three runs -- in six innings of work.

The Angels received a strong pitching effort from John Lackey in Monday's opener of this four-game set. The right-hander yielded just one run on eight hits over the first 6 1/3 innings as Anaheim came through with a 3-1 win over the Royals.

Lackey got all the offensive support he would need on Vladimir Guerrero's two- run double in the first inning. Chone Figgins added a run-scoring double later on in his first game back from the disabled list. The Angels third baseman had been sidelined with two broken fingers since late in spring training.

Francisco Rodriguez allowed a leadoff double in the ninth, but came back to strike out the side to record his ninth save of the season and seal the Angels' third straight win and ninth victory in 11 games.

Royals starter Odalis Perez (2-3) gave up 10 hits in six innings, but allowed only three runs. He struck out four and walked one for the Royals, who have lost four of five.

Monday's decision was the Angels' 14th win in the last 16 meetings between the clubs. Since the start of the 2004 season, Anaheim has gone 22-5 against the Royals and posted a 12-2 mark at Kauffman Stadium.

Zack Greinke will try to reverse that trend when he takes the mound for Kansas City tonight. The 23-year-old pitched brilliantly in a no decision Thursday at Minnesota, where he tossed seven shutout innings and allowed only four hits and four walks in a game the Royals wound up losing 1-0 in extra frames.

Greinke, a first-round draft choice by Kansas City in 2002, appears to have come back strong from a 5-17 campaign in 2005 and missing nearly all of last season with an anxiety disorder. The young righty has posted a 3.51 ERA through his first five starts of the year, although he hasn't won since April 10.

In his only previous start against the Angels, Greinke took the loss after giving up five runs and 12 hits over five innings on July 3, 2005.