The Angels made it official after a 9-5 defeat to the Detroit Tigers: Tommy Murphy was optioned to Salt Lake to make room for Kelvim Escobar on the roster. Escobar will make his return from the 15-day DL Tuesday. He was sidlined with shoulder irritation but said he is completely healthy now. In fact, Escobar admitted that he wasn’t too thrilled with his time off and plans on pitching through minor pain in the future. Pretty sure management is not thrilled about that one.

The Angels are leaning toward keeping 12 pitchers when Kelvim Escobar is activated Tuesday. That means the likely candidate to be sent down is rarely used backup outfielder Tommy Murphy. One reason for staying pitching heavy is the lingering soreness in Bartolo Colon’s right ankle. Colon’s foot rolled over while covering first base during his first start of the season Saturday.

He can feel it a little bit in his ankle but no worse than what he pitched with, manager Mike Scioscia said. We’ll see if he moves in the right direction. If we have to push (his Thursday start) back for a couple of days, that’s an option also.

They say to keep your eye on the ball, but this is rediculous. A fan sitting about 20 rows behind the Angels dugout just got drilled in the right eye by a Casey Kotchman line drive foul ball. Blood was everywhere and some fans did some on-the-spot first aid before paramedics arrived. To the male fan’s credit, he walked off under his own power, albeit with a compress over the eye as blood could be seen between his fingers. It’s amazing actually that you don’t see more serious injuries from foul balls. Safe to say that everybody on the third-base side will keep their head into the game now.

An MRI and CT Scan on Howie Kendrick’s left hand showed a non-displaced fracture on his third metacarpal and the second baseman was placed on the 15-day disabled list. Kendrick was hit by a pitch in Tuesday’s game against the Oakland Athletics. Vladimir Guerrero also was examined and his diagnosis of a contusion was confirmed. Guerrero could return to action as early as Friday.

The Angels will recall a player to replace Kendrick either Thursday or before Friday’s game. Since Robb Quinlan could take over at third base and Maicer Izturis can be moved to second, the Angels aren’t limited as to who they recall. In other words, they don’t just have to bring up an infielder. Brandon Wood is one of the candidates to join the Angels as are Kendry Morales and Terry Evans.