Jon Paul Morosi at the Detroit Free Press is reporting that the Tigers will call up Tim Byrdak from Toledo to fill in the bullpen. They will likely option tonight’s starter Virgil Vasquez back to Toledo to open the spot on the roster. Byrdak is a left hander and as Morosi states:

The fact that the Red Sox have two left-handed stars – David Ortiz and J.D. Drew – likely influenced the club’s decision.

I’d say that’s likely as well. Byrdak has had a successful year so far in Toledo pitching 22 innings with a 1.64 ERA. Tim is not new to the big leagues though as he pitched for Baltimore in both ‘05 and last year and before that in Kansas City between 1998-2000.

Baltimore used him as a LOOGY pitching 7 innings over 16 games. While his splits this year at Toledo between LHB & RHB are not too divergent his career splits are a bit different:

Hopefully he can continue his success against lefties in the next series against Boston. The series will be big as both the Tigers and Red Sox are leading their respective divisions.