DETROIT -- Tigers shortstop Jose Iglesias considers himself fortunate to be day to day.
Iglesias, 23, was hit on the left hand by Mariners reliever Tom Wilhelmsen in the bottom of the sixth inning of Thursday's game.
Iglesias immediately crumpled to the ground, holding his left hand.
"To be honest with you, I thought it was probably broke," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "It didn't sound good. As close as we are in the dugout sometimes, but with gloves, it does sound a little different with the glove.
"But when I heard it, I thought it was probably not good. I thought it was fractured or something, to be honest with you. Fortunately it wasn't."
Athletic trainer Kevin Rand rushed out to look at him and was finally able to get Iglesias' batting glove off.
Iglesias left the field with Rand to get X-rays, which were negative. Don Kelly pinch ran for Iglesias. Ramon Santiago moved from third base to shortstop after the inning.
"It was 95 miles per hour in the hand," said Iglesias, whose left hand was wrapped in ice. "But I got lucky. I got lucky it's not broken."
The Tigers announced Iglesias has a left hand contusion and is officially day-to-day.
"It was big for me," Iglesias said. "The only thing I'm concerned about is a broken hand, miss the rest of the season, which would be not good for us. But it's not broken and I'm happy about it."
Iglesias' teammates were happy about it, too.
"Iglesias, man, he’s big for a shortstop," Hunter said. "We need him. His glove is unbelievable. Whenever you get hit in the hand, you always worry, because you got so many little bones there. Just a small fracture can put you out.
"So we’re glad we got some good news that nothing’s broken, nothing’s fractured, and we might have him in, I guess, a couple days."
Leyland cautioned that just because Iglesias' hand isn't broken, it doesn't mean he'll be back in the lineup Friday.
"On something like that, they do that immediately with the x-rays, Kevin (Rand, head athletic trainer) just comes down to the bench and tells me that x-rays are negative, which is a good thing," Leyland said. "But that doesn't mean he can play for three or four or five days necessarily. So I'm hoping we can get it right. I'd question whether he plays (Friday)."
As happy as he was that his hand wasn't broken, Iglesias still wasn't feeling so good.
"It's great news for myself and for the team but it's really painful right now," Iglesias said. "It feels bad."
