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TB@WSH: Archer fans seven in big league debut

The Rangers' Yu Darvish and the Rays' Chris Archer, who will square off on Saturday, are both right-handed rookies.

The similarities end there.

Darvish dazzled for seven years in Japan before meriting a mega contract with the Rangers -- posting a 14-9 record in his first 25 Major League outings.

Archer has toiled in the farm systems of the Indians, Cubs and Rays since Cleveland selected him in the fifth round of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft. Now, he'll be center stage for his third career start after Tampa Bay ace David Price was scratched with a sore shoulder.

"Any time you get the opportunity to take the ball in the big leagues, it's super exciting," Archer said. "You try not to get overwhelmed with everything. But it's always exciting."

The 23-year-old made a pair of starts for Tampa Bay in late June. Despite compiling a 3.86 ERA, Archer took two losses.

As for Darvish, the 26-year-old tossed seven scoreless innings against the Rays on Aug. 28. Then on Monday, he flirted with a perfect game before surrendering three runs on three hits to the Royals in seven frames. Darvish appears anxious to face Tampa Bay again.

"I expect they will come with a different lineup, and I will attack each hitter and try to get each hitter out," he said.

Archer will attempt to do the same. Back in the big leagues for the second time, the right-hander said he doesn't plan to be intimidated by the Rangers' imposing offense or the international superstar who will oppose him on the mound.

"I'm here for a reason too, because I'm pretty good, too," Archer said. "[I've learned] not to be too overwhelmed with the atmosphere and remember it's just baseball."

Rangers: Harrison pushed back to Tuesday
• Right-hander Roy Oswalt will start on Sunday in place of Matt Harrison in an effort to give the southpaw some extra rest.

"We're just trying to give [Harrison] an extra couple of days," manager Ron Washington said. "He understands that last year we gave him a break and it helped him. He's the only one that's been on regular terms, so we're gonna do it right now and see where it takes us."

Harrison, 26, is 15-9 with a 3.37 ERA in 27 starts. The All-Star has tallied 179 innings this season, just seven shy of a new career high.

• Darvish, who has racked up 161 2/3 innings thus far in his first Major League season, said he isn't feeling any fatigue.

Rays: Club hopes Price's injury not serious
• Price said the shoulder soreness -- more extreme than what he feels after most starts -- caught him off-guard.

"It's not a big situation right now," said Andrew Friedman, Rays executive vice president of baseball operations. "It's not a big deal, and it's something that we wanted to be aggressive to get in front of to make sure that it wouldn't become a bigger deal."

Price (17-5, 2.54 ERA) will continue to be evaluated every day. Friedman said he should return to the rotation sometime next weekend against the Yankees.

"There's a lot of mileage that these guys put on their bodies throughout the course of a year," Friedman said. "It's one of those things that happens fairly frequently throughout the course of a season, and it's really us being cautious and backing it up, missing a turn, and hopefully putting [Price] in a position to finish strong."

Worth noting
• In ESPN the Magazine's annual ranking of the 122 Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA and NHL franchises, the Rays finished No. 1 overall in "Affordability."

• Rangers reliever Robbie Ross threw soft toss for the first time on Friday since straining his left forearm.

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