Astros’ sweep of Red Sox accompanied by great news about Justin Verlander

The Houston Astros did exactly what they needed to do over the weekend. Facing off against a hungry Red Sox team that needed a strong series to continue to hang around in the AL Wild Card race, the Astros instead ran their win streak to five games with a convincing sweep. With Seattle also on a bit of a roll themselves, Houston kept pace with a sneaky tough series against the Rays coming up.

However, that wasn't all the good news that came out of the weekend for the Astros. Justin Verlander, who has been on the shelf since June with a neck injury, had a rehab start over the weekend where the stakes were quite high, with regard to his return timeline. By all accounts from Verlander and others, he felt and looked good in that appearance, and is on track to return to the Astros' rotation.

Astros News: Justin Verlander impresses in rehab start, is on track for return from IL soon

For Verlander, the most important thing is that he got through his rehab start healthy, and it sounds like it was "mission accomplished" on that front. Not only did Verlander say that he felt good after throwing 52 pitches in three innings of work, but his stuff looked crisp and he was averaging close to 94 mph on his fastball. Given how long he has been out, Houston couldn't ask for any more than that.

The plan continues to be to give Verlander one more rehab start before his return. Assuming he throws well and doesn't have another setback, that presumably means that Astros fans could see him return from the injured list early next week. The Astros are likely to be careful with Verlander's workload upon his return, as it will take a little longer for him to be fully stretched back out.

Verlander's impending return comes at a critical point of Houston's season. The Astros rotation has been surprisingly effective in Verlander's absence. Spencer Arrighetti has rounded into form of late, which is great, and Hunter Brown has looked dominant for a while, but Ronel Blanco has started to come back to earth lately. In response, the Astros have had to really rely on their shallow depth, as well as their faith that Yusei Kikuchi's adjustments will stick. Getting Verlander back will at least give the Astros more options for the stretch run, even if he isn't what he once was.

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