Aroldis Chapman to throw Tuesday for Louisville Bats

The Cuban Missile is returning to Louisville.

Aroldis Chapman will start Tuesday on a rehab assignment for the Louisville Bats, who host the Norfolk Tides for a 6:35 p.m. first pitch at Slugger Field. And he may throw another inning again Wednesday — same place, but with an 11:05 a.m. start.

“There's chance he'll go to back-to-back,” Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price told The Cincinnati Enquirer. “As I say, everything is day to day. He's got to get through one before the other.”

Chapman has already played in two games for the Class A Dayton Dragons, his first action since a ball off the bat of Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez hit him the face during a spring training game. The hard-throwing left said after appearances for Dayton that he felt “normal,” remaining on track to be activated by the Reds later this week.

The numbers, at least, were normal by Chapman’s standards. A 38-save closer the last two seasons, he hit 101 mph on the radar gun with the Dragons during a pair of one-inning starts. Chapman struck out three and didn’t allow a hit.

The 6-foot-4 fireballer last pitched in Louisville on a 2011 rehab assignment. Before that, he spent most of 2010 with the Bats, when he went 9-6 with a 3.57 earned run average before getting a late-season call up.

Jonathan Broxton has served as the Reds’ closer with Chapman sidelined. Cincinnati is 15-16, 5 ½ games behind first-place Milwaukee in the NL Central.

Jonathan Lintner can be reached at (502) 582-4199; follow him on Twitter @JonathanLintner.