Greinke’s first start Tuesday vs. Rockies

CLEVELAND — Zack Greinke will see familiar faces in his Astros debut.

Greinke will start Tuesday’s game against the Colorado Rockies at Minute Maid Park, manager A.J. Hinch revealed Thursday, reuniting the former Arizona Diamondback with a National League West foe. Greinke has a 3.12 ERA in four starts against Colorado this season.

The Astros acquired Greinke on Wednesday afternoon in a blockbuster trade near the end of the deadline. Greinke and the Astros’ two other pitching acquisitions — Aaron Sanchez and Joe Biagini — will join the team before Friday’s home game against the Mariners.

To clear spots on the 25-man roster, Houston optioned outfielder Myles Straw and pitcher Jose Urquidy to Class AAA Round Rock after Thursday night’s 7-1 win over the Indians. Pitcher Bryan Abreu was jettisoned to Class AA Corpus Christi.

Hinch had phone conversations with all three new Houston hurlers in the 24 hours following a crazed deadline. He has never previously met any of them.

Sanchez will start Saturday’s game against Seattle. An All-Star during the 2016 season, he will

enter his debut carrying the highest ERA of any qualified major league starter (6.07) and a major league-high 14 losses.

Biagini will be available out of the bullpen beginning Friday. The 29-year-old righthander threw a scoreless inning Wednesday against the Royals.

Biagini has a fastball and curveball combo. He is menacing against righthanded hitters, holding them to a .657 OPS and

nine extra-base hits in 128 plate appearances. The Yankees are a righthanded-heavy bunch, and perhaps this is a playoff-centric addition to the Astros bullpen.

“He takes the ball whenever, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a one-inning stint, multiinning stint or matchup,” Hinch said. “We’ve got to talk a little bit about how we feel he’s going to fit into our bullpen mix, what his attack plan is against some lefties and situations I bring him in that are not as obvious. He’s sort of been under the radar.”

Peacock to begin rehab assignment

Brad Peacock will begin a minor league rehab assignment with Class AAA Round Rock this weekend.

Peacock reported himself pain-free after throwing a bullpen session at Progressive Field on Wednesday. He will get a two-inning stint on Saturday or Sunday, manager A.J. Hinch said.

“Right now we’re going to leave it at two innings and see how he responds before we see if we’re going to move to a threeinning stint or work him in as more of a one- or two-inning guy,” Hinch said. “Just getting him back into a game this week will be really important.”

Peacock has missed nearly a month with right shoulder soreness. Fellow righthander Josh James, on the injured list since July 23 with a similar ailment, will begin playing catch soon.

Chirinos remains primary catcher

Robinson Chirinos will still catch a “majority” of the Astros’ games while splitting duties with the reacquired Martin Maldonado in a “timeshare,” manager A.J. Hinch detailed Thursday.

Maldonado made his return to the Astros’ starting lineup on Thursday, catching Gerrit Cole in the series finale against the Indians. Chirinos is likely to catch Wade Miley on Friday, given the team’s late getaway-day game and early-morning arrival into Houston.

Such situations will normally dictate playing time. Hinch usually switches catchers if there is a day game after a night game or travel is a hassle.

Chirinos started 77 of Houston’s first 109 games. General manager Jeff Luhnow acknowledged Wednesday he’d like Maldonado to take some of that heavy workload away from the 35-year-old Chirinos.

Maldonado arrived in the Astros dugout midway through Wednesday night’s 10-4 loss to the Indians. He snuck behind Hinch to wrap him in a bearhug before reacquainting himself with former teammates he’d kept in touch with since his offseason departure.

“Now,” he said Wednesday night, “I don’t have to text them anymore.”