Johnny adds fuel

Johnny Damon rarely spoke in cliches when he played in New York and he doesn't now that he's in Detroit.

Newsday's Cody Derespina was among the small group of reporters who caught up with Damon after tonight's game and he didn't restrain himself in offering his thoughts on what happened -- both tonight and Monday.

“I definitely thought they hit Miggy on purpose,” Damon said of Chad Gaudin’s third pitch of the eighth inning that plunked Miguel Cabrera.

He then transitioned into evaluating Brett Gardner's hard slide from Monday. 

“I mean Gardner the other day, he actually possibly ruined, or ended Guillen’s season,” Damon said. “And anyone over there thought that was a clean slide, you know they’re -- we have a different opinion on that. But it’s part of baseball and I thought the slide was dirty and I’m sure a lot of those guys would agree.”

As for Gaudin not getting ejected, Damon again was unfiltered.

“Well, that’s why the warnings are issued,” Damon said. “Because of that, it can get players hurt in this game and they’re on their way to making the playoffs .. that’s the kind of stuff that their team doesn’t need. I mean our team, we’re fighting to stay above water. So, unfortunately things like that happen in baseball. But when there’s a warning, something gotta happen there.”

With one more game left in this series, something very well may happen.