Rangers set rotation for Astros series

Right-hander Colby Lewis won’t come off the disabled list and start this weekend for the Texas Rangers, who will send A.J. Griffin to the mound Friday for the opener of a key three-game series against the Houston Astros.

Left-hander Derek Holland will start Saturday and right-hander Yu Darvish will follow Sunday after manager Jeff Banister met with Lewis to discuss his next move. It appears that Lewis will make a third rehab start after allowing allowing five runs in 3  1/3 innings Tuesday in a start for Double A Frisco.

While he continued to build up pitches, he said that he felt like he was in a spring training mode and that his pitches weren’t sharp enough yet. Another rehab start could come Sunday on normal rest.

Manager Jeff Banister said that Darvish and lefty Cole Hamels would get an extra day of rest, thanks to the Thursday off day, even though it would result in them not pitching in the same series.

They could have pitched Saturday and Sunday on normal rest against the second-place Astros, who trailed the Rangers by 8 1/2 games entering an off day Thursday.

“We’ll see how [Lewis] feels based off of last night,” Banister said. “We’re kind of leaning toward giving Darvish and Cole the extra day. We’re looking at that [Holland on Saturday]. First and foremost, I want to find out where Colby is.”

Griffin is coming off his best start since being activated from the disabled list in June. He tossed six scoreless innings Saturday against the Cleveland Indians, allowing five hits and one walk and not allowing a homer for the first time in 12 starts.

He had lost two straight starts and had completed six innings only once since May 2.

“I’d been pretty frustrated with how things had been going before the last start,” the right-hander said. “That was a good step in the right direction. I’m obviously looking to build off of that.”

Griffin is 6-3 with a 4.39 ERA but 3-3 with a 5.17 ERA since coming off the DL on June 25 after a seven-week bout with shoulder stiffness.

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 1:39 PM with the headline "Rangers set rotation for Astros series."