Navarro rattled by foul off mask

Dioner Navarro was hospitalized for tests late Saturday after taking a foul tip off his mask, but he is not expected to end up on the disabled list.

Navarro's agent, Kendall Almerico, said the catcher had been released from the hospital and was "going to be fine," though the Rays planned to evaluate him today.

Navarro left the game in the top of the seventh inning after being struck squarely in the mask by a foul tip that grazed off the bat of Oakland DH Jack Cust. The redirected 93-mph fastball from Grant Balfour knocked Navarro to the ground behind the plate, where he was tended to by members of the Rays' medical staff.

Both managers - former catchers Joe Maddon and Bob Geren - came out to check on Navarro, who eventually needed assistance to walk slowly off the field and was replaced by Michel Hernandez.

"At first he was lucid, he was fine," Maddon said, "but he just got to the point where he wasn't feeling really good, so we had to get him out of there."

Shields to finish, start

The Rays will send the same pitcher to the mound to open the second half Friday as they will today to close out the first half.

James Shields will lead off in Kansas City after the All-Star break and be followed in the rotation by Scott Kazmir, Matt Garza, David Price and Jeff Niemann.

That setup allows the Rays to follow their preferred tenets, such as alternating lefties and righties and separating Shields and Garza because they tend to be the most reliable at pitching deep into games - theoretically spreading out the potential burden on the bullpen.

"I really believe, as this thing moves forward, you're going to see David get deeper into games, and you just saw Jeff do it Friday night," Maddon said. "So it's maybe not as much of a concern right now as it was earlier in the year, how to space these guys out."

The rotation essentially follows the same line the Rays employed to open the season, with Price stepping into the fourth spot in place of Andy Sonnanstine.

Maddon: My bad

Maddon was ejected in the ninth inning and said afterward that he had erred in arguing with plate umpire Jeff Nelson.

With Matt Holliday on second base, Hernandez had a pitch roll behind him a foot or so and used his mask to scoop it up, which is illegal. Maddon said he thought Hernandez had reached down with his bare hand, not his mask.

"That was the right call by Jeff Nelson," Maddon said. "I didn't see it at first, but when I watched the replay it was right."

Better with age

"Turn Back the Clock" nights are reliable promotional gimmicks, but it's not often an active player gets to pull on a "retro" jersey he actually wore the first time around.

Dan Wheeler managed to pull that off Saturday as the Rays donned the same style uniforms they wore in their first three seasons of existence, 1998-2000. Wheeler made his big-league debut in a similar jersey Sept. 1, 1999, starting for the Devil Rays at Baltimore.

"I made my debut in it, and it'll always have a special place in my heart for that, so I'm looking forward to putting it back on again," Wheeler said. "You can look at it two different ways: you're old, or you've been able to do something right and stick around."

Sick bay

C Shawn Riggans (right shoulder tendinitis) will report to Port Charlotte next week to begin a rehab assignment, working first as a DH. ... 2B Akinori Iwamura (left knee surgery) also will be at the Rays' spring training complex. There had been some talk earlier that he might travel to Kansas City to continue his rehab work. ... Sonnanstine is on Durham's seven-day DL with mononucleosis.

Marc Lancaster