Back in Cleveland

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.