Guillen not in Tigers lineup after take out slide

By foxsports
Published

Carlos Guillen paid the price for standing his ground on a game-ending double play.

Guillen was out of the Detroit Tigers lineup Tuesday night because of a sore left knee a day after the second baseman was taken out on a hard slide by the New York Yankees' Brett Gardner.

''It's swelling,'' Guillen said. ''He got me pretty good.''

Guillen said he had X-rays and an MRI. After the Tigers lost to the Yankees 6-2, Leyland said, ''He's fine. The MRI was clean. And right now we're saying, he's day to day.''

The loss of Guillen for another extended period would be a big blow to the struggling Tigers, who are 6-9 in August and have fallen from a game out of first place in the AL Central at the All-Star break to 10 back entering Tuesday.

Guillen, hitting .273 with six homers and 34 RBIs, was out with a strained calf from July 25 to Aug. 9. The Tigers were also without Brandon Inge for several weeks, and have Magglio Ordonez and Danny Worth on the disabled list.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth Monday night and Detroit leading 3-1, the Yankees' Derek Jeter hit a grounder to shortstop Jhonny Peralta. Peralta made a soft throw to Guillen at second base and the speedy Brett Gardner slid into his legs in an attempt to break up the double play. Guillen saw Garnder coming in hard but didn't attempt to avoid him while making a strong relay throw to nip Jeter at first base to end the game.

Leyland called it ''the play of the game'' Monday.

''He stood in there and took it like a man,'' Leyland said after the victory.

Wincing with pain as he stood in front of his locker Tuesday, Guillen said had no anger toward Gardner.

''He tried to do his job. I know he's trying to break up the double play,'' Guillen said. ''I'm trying to do mine.''

Yankees manager Joe Girardi credited the hard-nosed Gardner's speed with giving him a chance to even try and keep the inning going.

''It's the way Gardner plays. He's all out all the time,'' Girardi said. ''A lot of guys aren't going to get that close because they don't have the speed.''