Tigers Relying Heavily On Avila Behind Plate

Detroit continues to push its luck by having just one regular catcher on its roster.

Not that having to catch every inning of every game seems to be bothering Alex Avila.

Still, should something happen to force Detroit to put Avila on the disabled list, the Tigers would be in a world of hurt.

Were the Tigers in the National League, the land of five-man benches, it would be no problem. They could simply bring up somebody who could call a game and throw out the occasional runner to get them through a pinch.

But reducing an American League bench to a spare infielder, outfielder and utility player, along with a backup catcher who might play once or twice in two weeks, puts a limit on what a manager can do. It all but rules out mid-game moves.

So every night Jim Leyland talks to his brother, who is a priest, he must ask him to offer up a little prayer that nothing happen to Avila for the next week or more.

Right now, Leyland can't bring in Victor Martinez to give Avila a break, either for part of a game or for a complete day off.

Martinez hurt his left knee Aug. 6. It hasn't stopped Detroit from using him as its DH, but every time you see Martinez run, you understand again why he can't squat down behind the plate for even a batter.

Leyland keeps playing it day by day. He's been limited the past few days by the fact that Brennan Boesch can't play. His sore right thumb isn't bad enough to put him on the disabled list but it is bad enough to have kept him out of the starting lineup for the last four games.

Leyland's third catcher is Don Kelly, whose professional experience behind the plate consists of six innings in a blowout. The manager has to be careful how he uses Kelly -- he can't take him out of a game once he enters because if something happened to Avila, he'd have to call on Ryan Raburn.

Detroit tried a third catcher early in the season when Martinez was disabled, Omir Santos, but he played just one game and pinch-hit in another in the two weeks he was with the team. Leyland clearly doesn't want to go that route again unless he has to. He may be waiting for Thursday's day off so he can sit Martinez on Wednesday in hopes that two straight days of treatment will get his knee healthy enough to let him catch again. That wouldn't happen until after Detroit's weekend series with Cleveland; you know Avila will catch all three of those games.

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