Astros face Mets, welcome Verlander's arrival

HOUSTON -- Having trudged through their first losing month of the season and watching from afar as their city suffered through the ravages of Hurricane Harvey, the Astros received late Thursday night a needed jolt via the acquisition of right-hander Justin Verlander.

The Astros (80-53) shipped three prospects to Detroit in exchange for Verlander and $16 million to offset his future salary. Verlander (10-8, 3.82 ERA), the 2011 American League Cy Young Award winner and Most Valuable Player, will make his debut on Tuesday in Seattle.

For a club that finished 11-17 in August hampered by a rotation that has been equal parts injured and inconsistent, the addition of Verlander (5-2 with a 2.41 ERA in the second half) provides a boost on the field and in the clubhouse.

"It's hard to overstate the energy this puts into the group," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. "By the responses from our team, we couldn't be more excited to get him here."

Astros right-hander Charlie Morton (10-6, 3.88 ERA) will start Saturday in the first game of a doubleheader against the New York Mets, marking the first doubleheader in the 18-year history of Minute Maid Park. Morton is 0-3 with a 3.80 ERA in eight career appearances (seven starts) against the Mets. In five August starts, Morton went 1-2 with a 4.20 ERA and 33 strikeouts in 30 innings.

Right-hander Brad Peacock (10-2, 3.12 ERA) will start the doubleheader nightcap for Houston. Peacock scuffled in August, finishing 1-1 with a 4.45 ERA in five starts, although he did have 36 strikeouts in 28 1/3 innings. He is 1-0 with an 0.93 ERA in two career starts against the Mets.

Mets right-hander Matt Harvey (4-3, 5.25 ERA) will make his first start since June 14 to open the doubleheader. Harvey is returning from a 10-week stint on the disabled list courtesy of a stress injury in his right shoulder. This will mark his first career appearance against Houston.

Right-hander Seth Lugo (5-3, 4.85 ERA) will start the second game for the Mets. Lugo missed the first two-plus months of the season with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. This will be his second start since returning from the DL with a shoulder impingement.

Getting Harvey back for the final month of the season offers a measure of good news for the Mets (58-75) and their beleaguered rotation.

Harvey opened the season as part of a talented quintet, including right-handers Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Zack Wheeler, plus left-hander Steven Matz, a rotation expected to help the Mets contend for a postseason berth. But deGrom is the lone starter to have remained healthy enough to log 100-plus innings.

For Harvey, the shoulder injury was the latest in a long line of maladies to dim his star, from Tommy John surgery in 2015 to a procedure required to offset his thoracic outlet syndrome. The Mets plan to limit Harvey to around 80 pitches as he takes another step toward stability.

"It's going to be really important that he's out there pitching, because I think the more he pitches, the better he's going to get," Mets manager Terry Collins said to MLB.com. "We've got the injuries behind us. Obviously, the more he's out, the more he pitches, the more he gets back in the routine of things, we'll have a better idea of where he's at down the road."