Breaking News: The Astros and Blue Jays will play a rubber match in the series as the Astros officially sign San Diego Padres first baseman and top seasoned player.

Astros and Blue Jays meet in series rubber match

The Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays meet on Wednesday with the three-game series tied 1-1

Toronto Blue Jays (3-3) vs. Houston Astros (1-5)

Houston; Wednesday, 8:10 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Blue Jays: Chris Bassitt (0-1, 7.20 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, six strikeouts); Astros: Cristian Javier (0-0, .00 ERA, .83 WHIP, six strikeouts)

FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLB LINE: Astros -146, Blue Jays +123; over/under is 9 runs

BOTTOM LINE: The Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays play on Wednesday with the three-game series tied 1-1.

Houston had a 90-72 record overall and a 39-42 record in home games last season. The Astros scored 5.1 runs per game in the 2023 season while allowing 4.3.

Toronto went 89-73 overall and 46-35 on the road a season ago. The Blue Jays slugged .417 as a team in the 2023 season while hitting 1.2 home runs per game.

INJURIES: Astros: Penn Murfee: 15-Day IL (elbow), Lance McCullers Jr.: 60-Day IL (elbow), Oliver Ortega: 15-Day IL (elbow), Luis Garcia: 15-Day IL (elbow), Bennett Sousa: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Shawn Dubin: 15-Day IL (forearm), Jose Urquidy: 15-Day IL (forearm), Justin Verlander: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Kendall Graveman: 60-Day IL (elbow)

Blue Jays: Bo Bichette: day-to-day (neck spasms), Danny Jansen: 10-Day IL (wrist), Alek Manoah: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Jordan Romano: 15-Day IL (elbow), Erik Swanson: 15-Day IL (forearm)

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

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3 early-season moves Padres must make

With the 2024 campaign underway, let’s take a look at three early-season moves the Padres should try to make.

If predictability is what you’re looking for in your sports teams, you would have hated being a San Diego Padres fan the past few seasons. They’ve overperformed and they’ve underperformed. They’ve seen Fernando Tatís Jr. become a superstar, get suspended, and find his way back. They’ve gone all-in, fully pivoted and slashed the budget, then cautiously

Essentially, whenever the Padres have looked to be in any position to zig, that’s precisely when they’ve decided to zag, and now it’s left them in an interesting spot. They have a very solid roster, a good mix between youth and veteran leadership, but they are stuck in the National League West, which is arguably tougher than we’ve ever seen it be.

Off to a disappointing 4-5 start, there’s more than enough time for San Diego to establish a foothold and start building a bridge to a Wild Card spot this season. But they also cannot afford to sit still and hope the roster exactly as currently constructed can coalesce into the best version of the Padres. If they want to get to the dance, they’ll need to make some bold