Astros' Justin Verlander: Aiming for weekend return

Verlander (shoulder) will throw a bullpen session Tuesday, and if all goes well, he's expected to be reinstated from the 15-day injured list to make his first start of the season this weekend in Washington, Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports.

Verlander gave up six runs (five earned) on seven hits and one walk while striking out three over four innings in his second minor-league rehab start with Double-A Corpus Christi this past weekend. While his results weren't encouraging, Verlander more importantly built up to 77 pitches and reported no setbacks coming out of the rehab outing. He'll link back up with the Astros this week and will have his bullpen session monitored by the coaching and training staffs, but assuming he checks out fine, he should be on track to start Friday's series opener versus the Nationals.