Ausmus will work to get Moya playing time

DETROIT — Slugging outfield prospect Steven Moya was expected to be a weekend fill-in when the Tigers called him up last Thursday. He’s still here.

Now manager Brad Ausmus has to figure out what to do with him.

“To be honest, if you asked me when Moya got here who was going to go down on Sunday, I probably would have told you Moya,” Ausmus said. “But he played well enough to deserve a little bit more opportunity.”

With pressure on the Tigers during this nine-game homestand to regain momentum after 11 losses in 13 games over the previous two weeks, the Tigers kept Moya after activating Cameron Maybin from the disabled list, instead sending down Opening Day center fielder Anthony Gose.

• Maybin makes long-awaited return to Tigers

That leaves Maybin as the unquestioned starter in center. But it also leaves three corner outfielders for two spots, with Moya fighting for playing time and Ausmus trying to give Justin Upton and J.D. Martinez more chances to heat up while still providing Moya with a chance to show what he can do.

“We’re just going to kind of see how it goes,” Ausmus said. “[Moya’s] swinging the bat pretty well. He’s another left-handed bat. We don’t have a lot of left-handed bats in the lineup. If we need to give a corner guy a break, or we want to give Cam a break and put Upton in center, we have any of those options. But it’ll be a little bit of a juggling …

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