As the Astros hit the home stretch of the regular season, some reinforcements may be arriving to give them a jolt which will hopefully help them clinch the division.

Justin Verlander is preparing for his second rehab assignment, and should rejoin the team shorty, assuming all goes well. When he does return, at best we should expect seven starts from JV before the regular season concludes.

And in those appearances, expecting him to go seven innings deep consistently might be a bit too much to ask. If Verlander can give you six innings and give up two or three runs on most nights, we should be pleased. He is 41 years old, coming off an injury.

Six deep

There will be a need for a six-man rotation during some upcoming stretches, but when there are days off on the schedule, we should expect one of the starters to be skipped in the rotation.

It will be interesting to see if they choose to skip the pitcher who's dealing with an inning's threshold (Ronel Blanco, Spencer Arrighetti), or if they skip the player with the worst recent results.

Would manager Joe Espada skip JV in the rotation if he's the weak link? Hopefully, we won't have to find out the answer to that question.

King Tuck

As we look at the standings, it looks like it could take ninety wins to take the division again. So the return of Kyle Tucker can't come soon enough.

When he does return, we could see him hitting in the five spot, with Yainer Diaz splitting the two lefties. Let's be real, 70% of Tuck would be an upgrade over the production the Astros are getting in right field currently.

We also have to imagine Tucker will be in the DH spot from time to time as he works his way back. And we've seen the Astros have no issue starting Yordan Alvarez in left field regularly.

A new twist

Finally, another Astro might be returning this season that no one really counted on. Kendall Graveman is recovering from shoulder surgery and could be an asset down the road.

Don't miss the video above as we discuss how the additions of Verlander, Tucker, and Graveman could impact the club moving forward.

Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.