Max Scherzer ready to tackle Astros, unknowns in Game 3

(AP photo/LM Otero)

ARLINGTON — Max Scherzer faced the Astros once this season, and it didn’t go well.

The right-hander, in a hyped matchup against Justin Verlander, allowed seven runs in three innings. Yordan Alvarez, Michael Brantley and Jose Abreu homered. Adolis Garcia hurt his knee trying to catch one of them.

Afterward, Scherzer said that his forearm continued to be an issue, and he didn’t have the extra day’s rest he’d had in his previous starts.

He will be working on 34 days’ rest when he takes the mound Monday night in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. Granted they were all spent on the 10-day injured list as he recovered from a strained teres major muscle in his right shoulder, but Scherzer is fresh.

“Physically, I’m healthier,” he said Tuesday.

The issue, though, is