Yerry Rodriguez starting for Rangers Tuesday

The Texas Rangers starting pitcher for tonight’s game against the Houston Astros will be Yerry Rodriguez, the team announced this afternoon.

This is somewhat of a surprise, as I believe the expectation was the Chad Bradford would start, and be backed up by Owen White. However, the Astros are a bit righty-heavy at the top of the lineup currently, and so the Rangers may use Rodriguez as an opener before turning to Bradford (or White). Of course, if Yordan Alvarez returns to the active roster for the Astros today, that righty-heavy top of the lineup gains a pretty significant lefty bat.

It is a less than ideal scenario for the Rangers, who operated with a shorthanded bullpen last night due to White and Bradford being held in reserve for today’s game, and Nathan Eovaldi’s scheduled start being skipped. Hopefully that trio can give the Rangers innings and give the offense a chance to do some damage against Astros’ starter J.P. France.