Apparently the Andy Dirks Achilles injury is more serious than a simple day off could remedy. He’s not in the lineup. Don Kelly takes his place. Brennan Boesch moves back to the second spot.

TIGERS

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

P: Max Scherzer

RED SOX

1. Scott Podsednik, CF
2. Daniel Nava, LF
3. Adrian Gonzalez, 3B
4. David Ortiz, DH
5. Kevin Youkilis, 3B
6. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
7. Ryan Sweeney, RF
8. Mike Aviles, SS
9. Nick Punto, 2B

P: Josh Beckett

Add another key injury to the Tigers, who just placed Doug Fister back on the 15-day DL with a left side strain, similar to the injury that cost him a month earlier this season.

The move was just announced, so it doesn’t sound like something that was anticipated. There was no sign of trouble with Fister coming out of Monday’s outing against the Red Sox.

Casey Crosby will take Fister’s spot in the rotation and start Friday against the Yankees for his major league debut. Rick Porcello has been moved back to Saturday.

The big advantage of having three catchers on the 25-man roster is that if you have a good-hitting catcher, you can use him as a designated hitters on days when he’s not behind the plate and still have a catcher on the bench. When Detroit called up Omir Santos this morning, you had to wonder if Alex Avila might get a game or two at DH. You probably weren’t thinking about Gerald Laird there.

This will be Laird’s first start at DH as a Tiger. He started four games at DH with the Rangers in 2008.

Danny Worth starts in the second spot because, well, there isn’t really an obvious alternative without putting back-to-back left-handed bats atop the order. Look for Worth to get more starts than a simple lefty-righty platoon.

Andy Dirks gets a day off to rest a sore Achilles heel.

TIGERS

1. Quintin Berry, CF
2. Danny Worth, 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera, 3B
4. Prince Fielder, 1B
5. Delmon Young, LF
6. Brennan Boesch, RF
7. Jhonny Peralta, SS
8. Alex Avila, C
9. Gerald Laird, DH

P: Drew Smyly

RED SOX

1. Daniel Nava, LF
2. Mike Aviles, SS
3. Adrian Gonzalez, RF
4. David Ortiz, DH
5. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
6. Will Middlebrooks, 3B
7. Marlon Byrd, CF
8. Kelly Shoppach, C
9. Nick Punto, 2B

P: Jon Lester

The mystery move to take Ryan Raburn’s spot on the Tigers’ 25-man roster is going to Omir Santos, whose contract was purchased from Triple-A Toledo. He’ll be the third catcher on the Tigers roster for the time being, at least until Austin Jackson comes back from the disabled list.

It seems like an odd return move to wait until the next day to do. The only complication in the move is that Santos had to be added to the 40-man roster. It’s also a move that doesn’t follow any sort of catching injury to either Alex Avila or Gerald Laird.

Was this a Plan B move after something else didn’t work out? Possible, but remember, when the Tigers designated Brandon Inge last summer, they waited until their trade for Wilson Betemit was finalized and then announced both parts of the move at the same time.

Was this a reaction to Austin Jackson not being ready by Friday? Jim Leyland said Monday’s game was a last-ditch effort to get Raburn going. If the Tigers weren’t going to do anything until Jackson was eligible to come off the DL on Friday, why make a last-ditch move on Monday?

Was this more about getting Raburn to Toledo than getting anybody to Detroit? Very possible.

Was this a move that was more about getting Raburn to Toledo than getting anybody to Detroit?

That leash on Ryan Raburn that Jim Leyland said wasn’t very long on Tuesday afternoon ran out by the end of the night.

The Tigers announced after Tuesday’s loss that they had optioned Ryan Raburn to Triple-A Toledo, but Leyland said it had been a decision in the works for a while. His decision to bat Raburn second in the batting order on Monday was a last-ditch effort to get Raburn out of his season-long funk.

Once Raburn struck out three times on called third strikes that afternoon, the Tigers’ wait for him to find his annual summer groove ended.

“I knew this was the end of the rope if I didn’t get something going, so I put him in the two-hole,” Leyland said.

They’ll still look for him to get that spark, but he’ll have to find it in a Mud Hens uniform first.

“You have to understand, this is not a punishment,” Leyland said. “We have to try to get him going. He has gone down before and got it going and come back and helped us out. We’re hoping that’s what happens. But right now, we’re beating a dead horse. It’s just not working.”

No return move was announced. They’ll have a call-up on Wednesday, but Leyland said it will not be a second baseman.

“I have a combination of [Ramon] Santiago and [Danny] Worth,” Leyland said, “and I think that combination will stay intact.”

Neither Santiago nor Worth have hit particularly well, either, but neither had been getting the regular at-bats Raburn was. The move doesn’t make way for a replacement so much as it gets Raburn out of a situation that wasn’t working.

Raburn’s slow starts and midseason streaks have been almost an annual storyline since 2009, but his numbers this year’s have been particularly bad. His .146 batting average (18-for-123) was the lowest in the Majors among players with at least 100 plate appearances this year.

“It’s kind of something I didn’t want to think would happen,” Raburn said, “but the way I’ve been swinging, I just hadn’t really gotten the job done. It was kind of inevitable, just to help the team and help me kind of get it going. It’s just unfortunate I wasn’t able to help the team out much.”

Raburn had brief stints at Toledo in three straight seasons from 2008-2010 before spending all of last season in the big leagues. Two years ago, he went 12-for-27 with six doubles as a Mud Hen and never looked back. The hope clearly is that he can have a similar spark that he never found here.

“I don’t think we’ve seen the end of him,” Leyland said. “I’d be shocked if he doesn’t get going.”

Raburn doesn’t feel like he’s embarking on a major project.

“I don’t feel like I’m trying to rediscover my swing or anything like that,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting hits. That’s the bottom line. This game is based on production and right now I just wasn’t going. … I know I can help this ballclub. It’s just a matter of getting it going and getting back.”

The difference in Toledo, Raburn said, is that the pressure for immediate production isn’t as great.

“I think the main thing down there is really it’s not based on production,” he said. “I can go down there just trying to find me again. I don’t think it’s that far off. It’s just a matter of going down there and getting some at-bats. Sometimes having somebody else’s piece of mind can trigger something.

“I wish I had an answer why I wasn’t getting hits, but that’s part of the game. They’re out there making their money too.”

Remember what I wrote two hours ago about Delmon Young not being in the lineup tonight? Well, disregard it. He’s in the lineup now. I hadn’t seen him in the Tigers clubhouse as of just before 5pm but he’s expected to be back in time to get in enough work to be ready. Jim Leyland had said in his pregame remarks that this was probably a trying day for him, and a good day to give him a night off, but he apparently changed his mind.

Ramon Santiago, meanwhile, starts in Ryan Raburn’s place at second after Leyland said on the radio that Raburn’s leash is “probably not very long.”

TIGERS

1. Quintin Berry, cf
2. Andy Dirks, lf
3. Miguel Cabrera, 3b
4. Prince Fielder, 1b
5. Brennan Boesch, dh Delmon Young, dh
6. Jhonny Peralta, ss Brennan Boesch, rf
7. Alex Avila, c
8. Ramon Santiago, 2b Jhonny Peralta, ss
9. Don Kelly, rf Ramon Santiago, 2b

P: Justin Verlander

RED SOX

1. Daniel Nava, lf
2. Ryan Sweeney, rf
3. Adrian Gonzalez, 1b
4. David Ortiz, dh
5. Kevin Youkilis, 3b
6. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, c
7. Mike Aviles, ss
8. Scott Podsednik, cf
9. Nick Punto, 2b

P: Daniel Bard

Jim Leyland went on air with Mike Stone and Bill McAllister on 97.1 FM in Detroit this morning and talked about his postgame rant on the Mike Aviles call yesterday, saying among other things that the umpiring crew wasn’t going to take any argument over the call and that he isn’t in favor of a big expansion of instant replay. He also was asked about Ryan Raburn, and how long of a leash he has at second base.

That leash, Leyland said, is “probably not very long right now, to be honest with you.”

He didn’t expand on that. When asked about Quintin Berry’s hot start and how he could stick with the team after Austin Jackson’s return, however, Leyland said they’ll “put the best players on the field.”

It’s something Leyland has hinted at before. What it means, and how much time it means, at this point remains to be seen. Ramon Santiago has also struggled to a slow start, though not to the same degree, in starts at second and short. Danny Worth is 4-for-22 with seven strikeouts so far. One of them, though, could get some extended stretch here.

One more interesting note which could impact a lot of this: Leyland said the Tigers aren’t sure Jackson will be returning Friday when he’s eligible to come off the 15-day DL. As reported Monday, Jackson did not join the team in Boston because he wasn’t ready for baseball activities yet. Hard to see Jackson jumping back into the lineup without so much as batting practice in front of team medical staff.

Jim Leyland’s postgame remarks lasted all of about five minutes, but he got in all he wanted. Actually, he didn’t want to say as much about the missed call as he wanted to talk about accountability for it.

Clearly, replay showed that Gerald Laird caught the 0-2 pitch to Mike Aviles before it bounced in the dirt, and replay strongly suggested that Aviles didn’t foul off  the ball in the first place. Home-plate umpire Jeff Nelson made the ruling on the foul tip, while first-base umpire Bill Welke overruled him on whether Laird caught it.

“You guys need to write something and hold people accountable,” Leyland said. “You know what, we’re all accountable in this business. All of us are accountable. And when I say all of us, I mean everybody that’s involved in the game needs to be held accountable. That’s exactly what needs to be done.

“There should not have been a rally in that inning. Now, anybody that saw that, have the nerve to write what you saw and say it, because I’m not going to sit here and rip umpires. But you saw what you saw, clearly saw what you saw. I just saw it for the tenth time. Write it and say something.”

Umpires make mistakes. The problem Leyland and Laird seemed to suggest was that Welke made his ruling from a worse view than Nelson had, even though Nelson asked for help on the call.

Leyland: “I’m sorry. I’m the most patient man in the world with umpires, protect them more than anybody, and I understand the human element involved in the game. But you’re 120 feet away. Clearly, you have to be 110 percent sure. You can’t be guessing at that call. I mean, that’s that simple. I mean, come on. We gave up seven runs. Ok, that’s part of it. We did that. But we all need to be held accountable. Everybody involved in the game needs to be held accountable. Everybody. That’s all of us. And you can figure out who the people involved in the game are.”

Laird: “It’s a tough call. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t understand how somebody from 120 feet sees it better than someone back here, when you can clearly look at the baseball and see if there’s a dirt mark or a scuff. Because if you foul a ball in the dirt, it’s going to make a mark. And I even showed him the ball. There’s no mark.”

Leyland mentioned accountability several times, even during the minute and a half of the interview that made it to television. He did not have an answer, though, for how to hold umpires accountable, preferring to leave that up to the commissioner’s office.

“I don’t have anything to do with that,” he said.

Laird said several times that umpires have a tough job, and he has respect for the work they do. He also sounded less than enthusiastic about the idea for more replay.

“They’ve got the home runs now,” Laird said. “If you have to stop for little things like that, it’s just going to prolong this game, and you’ve already got games that last three, three and a half hours. That would’ve been quick, but then you have to stop every little thing, and that’s going to add up time. Honestly, you’ve just got to hold yourself accountable. I know they have a tough job, and I know they’re doing their best. It’s just seeing it night in and night out.”

Laird seemed more open to the idea of getting umpires together to confer on a call such as that.

But then, one of the problems was that there was a limit to how much heat they were taking on the call from the Tigers dugout. Third-base coach Gene Lamont, the first guy ejected, said third-base umpire Tim Tschida told him enough was enough, and ejected him after the next thing Lamont said.

“Somebody in our dugout was yelling at Tschida. He yelled and I said, ‘Tim, you’re going to have to take some heat when you make calls like that.’ And I said, ‘Well, you cost us three runs.’ And he pretty much told me that was enough, and I said something else, and he kicked me out.”

It was not a profanity, Lamont added.