Neither Brandon Inge nor Carlos Guillen are available today, but they’re expected back soon enough that the Tigers will go short-handed now. Omar Infante and Neifi Perez are starting, and Mike Rabelo and Sean Casey are on the bench. If an injury knocks out another infielder, Pudge will enter at second and Placido Polanco will move to the affected spot.

Here’s the lineup:

1. Rodriguez, C
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Sheffield, DH
4. Ordonez, RF
5. Thames, 1B
6. Monroe, LF
7. Infante, 3B
8. Perez, SS
9. Granderson, CF

Somebody asked why I never cover the Tigers in Tampa Bay. The answer is that very few of the MLB.com beat folks make that trip. It works a little different for MLB.com than a newspaper because we’re not all based out of one city and we don’t have a bunch of staff who can fill in, so at least half of the time off we get comes on road trips. In fact, before last year or two years ago, a lot of visiting MLB.com writers wouldn’t make the Detroit trip, because it usually wasn’t a critical series.

So the Tigers and Indians start just after 8 p.m., with Pistons/Cavs around 8:30. I’d be interested in hear how fans plan on handling that. Will most of you follow the Pistons game at all? Will you have two TVs set up? Flip back and forth? Have one game muted on TV, with the other on the radio?

Grilli isn’t hurt as badly as the line drive would’ve suggested. Apparently it hit off the side of his knee, rather than off the kneecap, and he feels like he shouldn’t be out long. Polanco felt like he’d like to be able to play tomorrow, though that would appear doubtful. He strained an oblique muscle on his right side, which he first felt stopping around third base and really felt sliding into home. He had a hard time breathing for about 20 minutes, but he was feeling "10 times better" afterwards.

Grilli is listed with a left knee contusion. X-rays were negative.

He left with a muscle spasm in his oblique. He’s listed as day-to-day.

With biceps tendinitis. Zach Miner recalled from Toledo.

He played catch this afternoon and still felt some stiffness in his right shoulder, so he’s out of action tonight. Not sure yet about tomorrow, but Rodney said he thinks he’ll be better in a day or two.

Here’s the lineup:

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Sheffield, DH
4. Ordonez, RF
5. Guillen, SS
6. Rodriguez, C
7. Casey, 1B
8. Monroe, LF
9. Inge, 3B

For those who missed it this afternoon, Ernie Harwell will broadcast both Thursday’s game against the Angels and Friday’s opener against the Indians for FSN Detroit. He was originally only scheduled to do Thursday’s game, so if you can’t catch that one, you can hear them on the telecast Friday.

Bobby Seay’s first major league save came in his 90th big-league appearance, six years after his debut. Yet while he has the game ball and it’s something he’ll cherish, he didn’t want to rank the appearance above all the others he has had this year.

"No, I don’t think so, not in my opinion," he said. "I mean, it’s obviously big for me to get my first save, good to help the team win. But I don’t think it’s the biggest. I think coming in and holding some of those games earlier this year are bigger to me. Even when I pitched in Baltimore and had to come in and soak up some innings, we ended up coming back to win, and I think that was probably bigger, in my opinion."

Seay didn’t even know this qualified as a save situation until Chad Durbin told him after the game.
Leyland gave two reasons for turning to Seay with two outs in the ninth. First, he wanted the lefty-on-lefty situation with power threat Chris Duncan up. Second, he didn’t want to overextend Fernando Rodney after he pitched Saturday night. Had Seay not retired Duncan, Leyland said, Todd Jones would’ve entered to face Yadier Molina.

The lineup is the same, and right now it looks like the rotation will stay that way, too. Jim Leyland said Mike Maroth is feel better, and the plan remains to pitch him on Tuesday against the Angels. As for Jeremy Bonderman, he’s supposedly doing a lot better with his blister crater. Leyland doesn’t want to project out yet either way, but he would like to have a decision around Tuesday so they can either send Miller down or have him go.

The Tigers have some flexibility on the pitching with Miller here and with the off-day Monday. If for some reason Maroth can’t pitch Tuesday, Chad Durbin could pitch Tuesday on his standard rest. If Maroth still couldn’t go Wednesday, but Bonderman could go Thursday, Miller could feasibly go Wednesday on regular rest.

Anyway, here’s the lineup for those who don’t want to page down:

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Sheffield, DH
4. Ordonez, RF
5. Guillen, SS
6. Rodriguez, C
7. Casey, 1B
8. Monroe, LF
9. Inge, 3B