Rangers place Nippert on DL after line drive to head

DETROIT — The Texas Rangers announced Tuesday that the club has placed right-handed pitcher Dustin Nippert on the 15-day disabled list with a head contusion. The club has recalled right-handed pitcher Doug Mathis from Triple-A Oklahoma City to take Nippert’s place on the 25-man roster.

Mathis will be in uniform and available for Tuesday night’s game in Detroit. Nippert, 29, has gone 3-4 with a 5.36 ERA (25 earned runs, 42 innings) in 28 games (two starts) for the Rangers this season.

A member of the Opening Day roster, he made each of his first 22 appearances in relief before a pair of spot starts on June 17 and 23.

Nippert faced a pair of batters in Monday night’s 14-inning, 8-6 victory over the Tigers but exited after taking a line drive off the right side of his head in the fifth inning.

As a precautionary measure, he was taken to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit during the game for further examination, and results of a CT scan revealed no serious damage.

Mathis, 27, has made 10 relief appearances for Texas this season, going 1-1 with a 6.98 ERA (15 earned runs, 19.1 innings).

Mathis will be in his third stint with the big league club, as he was also with the Rangers from Opening Day to May 14 and again from July 6-9.

Mathis has spent the remainder of the 2010 campaign at Oklahoma City, going 4-4 with a 4.68 ERA (31 earned runs, 59.2 innings) in 11 games, including 3-4, 5.09 (30 earned runs, 53 innings) in nine starts.

Originally scheduled to start Tuesday in the RedHawks’ doubleheader at Iowa, Mathis last pitched on Friday vs. Iowa, throwing 37 pitches over 3 1/3 scoreless relief innings.

With these moves, the Rangers still have a full 40-man roster.