Detroit's Avila goes on DL, Price has hamstring strain

DETROIT (AP) David Price has a mild strain of his right hamstring, and the Detroit Tigers plan to decide early next week when the star left-hander will make his next start.

Price got hurt on a fluky play Friday night against Kansas City, stepping on a bat that had been tossed aside by the plate umpire in anticipation of a play at home. The Tigers disclosed the extent of his injury Saturday, the same day they announced catcher Alex Avila had gone on the 15-day disabled list with a knee issue.

Price is 3-1 with a 3.30 ERA this season. He said Saturday he was feeling fine.

''It's just when things happen to you that never happened before, it's just scary,'' he said.

The Tigers described Avila's injury as a ''loose body'' on Saturday. He could need arthroscopic surgery.

''Normally it's like a piece of bone or something like that,'' he said. ''It affects me getting out of a chair. It's been pretty painful for a while, for the past few weeks. Some days it's been difficult just to walk around and stuff like that, so I knew it was probably something a little more serious, and basically I've been playing with it.''

Avila is hitting .200 with two home runs and eight RBIs. James McCann will have a chance to play a bigger role behind the plate in Avila's absence.

''We don't know any type of timetable really,'' Avila said. ''We're trying to basically figure out the course of action right now. But my expectation and my hope would be to be back and ready to go, good as new, for the second half. That would be my hope and I think that's a pretty realistic possibility.''