Astros will find out soon if they will face Shohei Ohtani Tuesday

The Houston Astros offense is alive and well.

They will face the White Sox’s most effective starter today in Rodrigo Lopez. James Shields and Lucas Giolito were not able to contain the Astros, who look to sweep the lowly White Sox today. Lance McCullers will take the mound for the Astros.

The Mariners and White Sox are not on par with the Astros. However, the Angels will be coming to Houston this week for an early season battle for the AL West. At the time of writing, the Astros have a half-game lead over the Angels. In my opinion, the two teams are good, but the H-Town squad has the better talent.

The Ohtani factor.

Last Sunday, bad weather postponed the Angels game with Shohei Ohtani on the mound. This pushed him back to start Tuesday versus the Red Sox, who scored three runs off him in three innings. Mookie Betts led off that game with an homer and Ohtani left early because of a blister.

Because Ohtani pitches every seven days, this places him to start Tuesday’s game versus the Astros. With the blister issue, whether he took the mound or not was up in the air. However, the Astros players can’t wait to face the Angels best starter.

The Angels will wait to see how Ohtani feels after a bullpen later today according to ESPN. They will be looking to see of his blister on his middle finger has healed enough to pitch. He will also most likely be in the lineup after sitting in favor of Albert Pujols yesterday. If Ohtani pitches the bullpen ok, then we could see him toe the mound at MMP Tuesday.

If they decide to skip his turn in the rotation, we could see Ohtani in the Angels lineup. He has shown some offensive prowess after a slow start. Ohtani is batting .342 with three homers and 11 RBIs. As a pitcher, he is 2-1 with an 3.60 ERA and striking out 19 hitters in 15 innings. If he pitches, we will not see him in the lineup on Monday or Wednesday.

Next: Astros: Is Josh Reddick the new cleanup hitter?

Some Astros fans would rather not face Ohtani, but many would like to see them face the best. Ohtani still has a lot to prove in the MLB, but he has shown flashes of being a star. At least we won’t have to face Garrett Richards this time around. We will know more later.

***Stats from ESPN or Baseball-Reference***