ARLINGTON, Texas — Yu Darvish is set to make his return to the Texas Rangers’ rotation on Saturday.

The AL West leaders said Darvish threw a bullpen session Wednesday and is expected to be activated from the 15-day disabled list to start the second game of the team’s weekend series at the Chicago Cubs.

Darvish has been on the disabled list since June 9 with shoulder discomfort.

The right-hander from Japan has made only three starts this season for the Rangers after missing all of the 2015 season because of Tommy John surgery.

After five rehab starts in May, Darvish made his season debut for Texas on May 28. He went 2-0 with a 2.87 ERA in three starts, but left his start against Houston on June 8 after only five innings. Darvish said after the game that tightness in his neck caused tightness in his shoulder.

Darvish cut short a bullpen session because of the same symptoms a few days later, and the Rangers skipped his next scheduled start before he was put on the 15-day DL.

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TIGERS: Detroit demoted outfielder Anthony Gose to Double-A Erie after he was in an altercation with Triple-A Manager Lloyd McClendon during a game over the weekend.

The Tigers announced that the 25-year-old Gose had his option transferred from Triple-A Toledo to Erie.

They also said he’d been on the suspended list from Sunday until Wednesday. Toledo has been off from Monday through Wednesday for its All-Star break.

Gose got in an argument with McClendon on Saturday and was removed from that game.

DODGERS: Clayton Kershaw has a target in mind for when he expects to pitch again for the Dodgers. But he’s keeping it to himself.

“I do,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense to share it. If I beat it, ‘Oh, you’re rushing back.’ And if I don’t, then it’s ‘Why not?’ ”

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Kershaw will be eligible to come off the DL when the Dodgers return from the All-Star break. But Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts has said he expects his ace to “need some time after that.”

Last week, Roberts said the team’s medical staff was “pleasantly surprised” with how quickly the epidural injection Kershaw received two weeks ago had given him relief from the lower back pain caused by a mildly-herniated disc.

Kershaw said he couldn’t say things have progressed more quickly than he expected because “I didn’t know what to expect.”

“I think the epidural did what it was supposed to do,” he offered.

Kershaw threw approximately 20 pitches in a bullpen session at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, his first time throwing off a mound since going on the disabled list.

He said he plans to throw another one on Wednesday but isn’t sure yet if he will travel with the Dodgers on their road trip to Arizona, Washington and St. Louis which begins Friday.

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BASEBALL’S ALL-STAR Game drew a record-low television rating for the second straight year.

The American League’s 4-2 victory over the NL in San Diego on Tuesday night got a 5.4 rating on Fox. The previous low was 6.6 last year for the game in Cincinnati.

Fox said Wednesday that the game drew a 10 share and 8.7 million viewers.

Ratings represent the percentage of homes with televisions tuned to a program, the share is the percentage of households watching among TVs in use at the time.

Baseball remains the most-watched all-star game of the four major North American pro sports. Fox said Tuesday night’s game was its highest-rated telecast of the summer season.


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