Brandon Inge survived a half-season playing on hobbled knees, but he made it just a half-inning playing with a broken hand. He will be out 4-6 weeks after breaking a bone near the base of his pinky fingers, though it was at least non-displaced. In English, the bone has a crack but the two parts didn't shift and need to be put back in place.
Rangers starter Scott Feldman hit Inge in the third inning and he stayed in the game after taking first base. Don Kelly trotted out to third for the top of the fourth.
And now Tigers fans are going to learn just how valuable a player the .263-hitting third baseman really was. As I write this, I assume Kelly will continue to play third and the Tigers will look for a utilityman to call up in Inge's place. Maybe Will Rhymes if they feel like they need the infield help. Other theories include calling up Jeff Larish to play third, or shifting Carlos Guillen to third and calling up Scott Sizemore. The latter idea sounds best on paper, but Sizemore has been injured a bit during his minor league stint. Larish is obviously a slugger, but hasn't played a lot of third base in the minors and hasn't hit much in the majors.
Or GM Dave Dombrowski can try to make a deal, which is disconcerting because it means he has fewer trade chips to address all the other needs on the club.
In any case, the thought of just how poorly-fielding the infield will be under any of these scenarios frightens me a bit. Needless to say, this is a season-changing injury for the team.
Updates as we get them.