Colby Rasmus Avenged

No, as you know the Tigers gritted their teeth and went without any longed-for beanballs in the Toronto series after Rasmus took out Omar Infante with a late, high slide. But don’t they always say that the best revenge is living well? The Tigers have been doing just that, winning the game in which Infante went down and then 4 of the next 5. Not entirely coincidentally, the Indians have been 1-5 over that span and have fallen well out of first place in the AL Central. The Blue Jays are 2-3 and failing to gain ground in the East. If the Tigers had given in to those baser instincts and beaned the heck out of him (or started throwing punches), maybe all this wouldn’t have gone so well?

Jul 3, 2013; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Detroit Tigers second baseman Omar Infante (4) reacts after being injured in the fourth inning as trainer Kevin Rand tends to him and third baseman

(24) looks on against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

News today is that Omar Infante, who has not played since the slide, won’t be playing until after the All-Star break. Rather than keep him on the active duty roster indefinitely day-to-day, the Tigers have elected to put him on the shelf for a while in order to call up some more infield depth. Though Ramon Santiago has dragged his OPS up by a full 22 points while filling in daily for Infante (he started at .469) he still hasn’t been a productive bat. The Tigers have made the curious decision to call up Hernan Perez all the way from Erie and one would presume (on past precedent) that he’s probably going to start most if not all days until Infante gets back. That’s no guarantee, of course, Perez did get a cup of coffee in June last year and entered only two games as a pinch-hitter and pinch-runner. Perez is probably the Tigers best genuine prospect in the middle infield, but it’s very debatable whether he is the guy who you’d want to see starting games for the big league club right now. At any rate, there may be something to be gained just by seeing what he looks like against good pitching. And, seriously, how many runs are the Tigers going to need to score to beat the White Sox right now… 2? 3?