Detroit Tigers, 25-28, 5 games behind Chicago. Day-to-Day injuries: 3–Add Benoit, with forearm tightness. Dirks officially to the 15-day DL. Matt Young called up from Toledo.

He had only been on the team a couple of days, and had been having a nightmare of an evening, committing 2 errors and seeing 5 runners steal on him. But Omir Santos had one thing in his favor: he hadn’t been around long enough to fall into the Tiger runner-on-3rd-less-than-2-out malaise, and his sacrifice fly redeemed a great outing by Rick Porcello and a Cabrera power show (Santos also had a sac bunt).

And in case you were wondering what Leyland would have done if he needed another player to take the field (he used his entire bench), Villarreal would have put on the glove.

Today is Magglio Ordonez Day at Comerica, with official retirement ceremonies beginning at 12:30.

This afternoon Justin Verlander steps on the rubber for the series rubber game, and looks to maintain Detroit’s winning record against the AL East (9-8). Verlander, impressed by last night’s game, is working on developing a 2-HBP, 2-Walk, 3-SB inning, except that he thinks he can do it without giving up a run. At any rate both Benoit and Valverde are likely to be unavailable today, so go Justin!

Stat of the Day: Miguel Cabrera hit 910 feet of home run ball last night (they were listed at 466 and 444). “That was a lot of footage, to say the least,” Detroit manager Jim Leyland said.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Magglio Ordonez, who is literally the player being celebrated in the pre-game.

Today’s Hey-It-Worked-Last-Night Lineup:

1. Quintin Berry CF
2. Danny Worth 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Brennan Boesch RF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Don Kelly LF
9. Omir Santos C

Detroit Tigers, 24-28, 6 games behind Chicago. Day-to-Day injuries: 3.

Alex Avila was scratched from tonights lineup with right hamstring tightness.  Gerald Laird is out with hamstring issues.  Suddenly the move to bring up Omir Santos looks prescient.

Ramon Santiago will go into tonight’s game as the only position player available on the Tiger bench.

Stat of the Day: Detroit and Minnesota are tied for the AL lead in grounding into double plays with 56 each.  Not surprisingly, the Twins also lead the league in ground ball to fly ball ratio (1.09).  Surprisingly, the Tigers have one of the league’s lowest ratios (0.74).  So they really aren’t hitting the ball on the ground–but they are making it count when they do.

Tonight’s Player of the Pre-game:  Don Kelly.  The Donkey will do his best to not clown it up at his weakest position, while keeping his fingers crossed for the health of Omir Santos–Don Kelly is now the only backup catcher on the team (which means he will not be pinch-hit for or otherwise replaced).

Tonight’s Day-to-Day-to-Day Lineup:

1. Quintin Berry CF
2. Danny Worth 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Brennan Boesch RF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Don Kelly LF
9. Omir Santos C

Detroit Tigers, 24-27, 5 games behind Chicago, winning streak: 1 game. And it’s Polish-American night.

It was all a terrible misunderstanding.

A lot has been written about the last day of the current installment of the Ryan Raburn Experience, mostly about the surprise appearance of Raburn in the 2nd spot in the order.

Subsequent stories have described this as a last ditch effort to see if Raburn could produce before lopping off his head, or at least fitting it for a Mud Hens hat. Because nothing relaxes a player who is pressing like being moved up to the 2nd spot in the order (there are two ways, of course, to look at this: Leyland is a fool, or Leyland is a genius, who could have predicted Raburn would strike out 3 times and just wanted to get this demotion thing done with).

The real story though is much simpler, and shows the importance of good communication within an organization.

Dave Dombrowski walked by while Leyland was in a pre-game fret about Raburn, and was asked for advice on what to do with Raburn.  Dombrowski: “He would be a good table setter.” Leyland, already stumped at how to get a table setter in the 2 spot on base in front of Cabrera and Fielder, jumped at the suggestion.  Much to his embarrassment, only later did he find out that Dombrowski was suggesting Raburn spend the day setting up the post-game buffet.

When asked why he didn’t question Dombrowski immediately about the unusual suggestion, Leyland said it fit with what he thought Dombrowski had previously said about Raburn: “He’s scrappy.”  Turns out he had misheard that.

***

Of course, the Raburn affair was overshadowed by the foul tip in the dirt which was neither tipped nor in the dirt, which joined the balk which was not a balk and the bunt off the invisible leg at the top of the list of Tiger umpiring travesties.  But be that as it may, how would you like to have to deal with what the Yankees have had to deal with from the umpires?

Why just Wednesday, the Yankees had to contend with an umpire throwing new balls to the pitcher, instead of letting the catcher do it! Remarkably the Yankees were able to prevail under these adverse conditions, and still beat the Angels 6-5.  Still catcher Russell Martin had no hard feelings over the incident, leaving umpire Laz Diaz with the conciliatory words, “you’re such a d—. You’re a d—, dude. Like, for real. Unbelievable.”

***

Tonight the Yankees will have to overcome the unknownness of Tiger rookie Casey Crosby, making his MLB debut against the enormous talent of C.C. Sabathia. Crosby posted an uninspiring 4.26 ERA at Toledo, but will be aided by the Yankee inability to recognize him from his generic Gameday photo.  I hesitated before posting the Game Post pic (it clearly reveals Crosby as a lefty), but have been assured that Yankee players rarely frequent this blog.

No word on whether Avila is out as a precaution after getting his mask knocked off, or whether Leyland is playing the usual RH/LH strategy.  Dirks is out with a sore achilles, which is apparently getting worse. And still no Jackson. We may see Raburn back at this rate.

***

Stat of the day: Prince Fielder (at 275 lbs) just hit his 10th career triple. According to baseball-reference.com, Prince Fielder is the second player in MLB history weighing at least 275 pounds to have 10 career triples. Adam Dunn (285 lbs) also has 10. I’m not sure which is more astonishing: the 10 triples, or that Fielder is listed as 10 lbs less than Dunn. Although if I read this correctly, all Austin Jackson has to do to break this record is to gain 90 lbs.

***

Tonight’s Player of the Pre-game:  Prince Fielder. The matchup between Fielder and fellow ex-Brewer Sabathia will be huge. Apparently, Sabathia was trying to convince Fielder to become a Yankee.  Tonight Sabathia will really wish Fielder was a Yankee.

Tonight’s Rookie Hazing Lineup:

1. Quintin Berry CF
2. Danny Worth 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young LF
6. Gerald Laird DH
7. Brennan Boesch RF
8. Omir Santos C
9. Ramon Santiago SS