Warming up in left field before the game while the Baltimore Orioles took batting practice, Tigers reliever Al Alburquerque received a concussion after being hit by a line drive off the bat of Orioles second baseman Robert Andino. Alburquerque was already ducking to get out of the way, but he fell to the ground immediately after the ball appeared to hit the side of his head.  He could be seen rolling around in pain afterward. 

Here's the video.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland told the media:

"He was in agony. It was scary. It was big-time scary."

Alburquerque was taken to a local hospital, where was was diagnosed with a concussion and some internal bleeding. He'll be kept under observation overnight. Under the MLB's new rules, he was placed on the 7-day disabled list due to the concussion. Ryan Perry was recalled from Triple-A Toledo.

Leyland said:

"You don't want to scare people, because we think he's going to be fine. But it's nothing to screw around with either."

So we'll have to wait to see how Alburquerque is. Each head injury is unique, so it wouldn't be wise to try to project anything based on other experiences. Hopefully Alburquerque recovers fast.

Since being demoted July 16, Perry has settled in a bit. In his last 10 games, he has pitched 16 2/3 innings and walked six batters. He struck out 14, and has an ERA of 4.32 during that span.

The Toledo Blade's John Wagner did a short piece on Perry at his coop scoop blog yesterday. He noted:

His fastball ranged between 93-97 mph (three at 97, two at 96, five at 95, two at 94 and two at 93). His slider ranged between 84-87 mph (one at 84, four at 86, three at 87).

The slider was the key pitch for Perry against Louisville. He threw a really good one to strike out Kristopher Negron to end the ninth; his strikeout of Hermida came on a 97 mph fastball. But there were some sliders that weren't as good, and many of them were up too high in the strike zone, a problem he has had while with Detroit.