gettin' the band back together against the royals

Sheffield tore a tendon in his ring finger while trying unsuccessfully to stretch a single into a double in the eighth inning.

"He would have not been able to hit if we came around to him in the ninth," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "I don't know how serious it was, but he couldn't bend it."

Sheffield said he would try to play through the injury, but he wouldn't know his status until the swelling subsided.