DETROIT -- Tigers manager Brad Ausmus will miss the next couple of games to deal with family matters.
Ausmus left the team on Wednesday to return home to Connecticut after his mother passed away. He was already scheduled to miss Friday's game in Oakland to attend his daughter Sophie's high school graduation.
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Bench coach Gene Lamont will step in to manage in Ausmus' place. Lamont managed a game last week after Ausmus received a one-game suspension for an animated argument with home-plate umpire Doug Eddings, which the Tigers won, 10-8.
"I wish I didn't have to manage today, but I do," Lamont said Wednesday morning. "I'll be all right."
Former Tigers manager and current special assistant Alan Trammell, who filled in as a coach earlier this season, will do so again on Wednesday, serving as Lamont's bench coach. Trammell will not accompany the team on its West Coast trip, so the Tigers will most likely go short-staffed for Friday's series opener against the A's.