Smoke signals

• Indians first baseman Nick Swisher, who is currently on Major League Baseball's paternity list, is scheduled to be activated in time for Friday's game in Boston. Swisher and his wife, JoAnna, welcomed a daughter into the world on Tuesday.

"He'll be back [Friday] for the game," Francona said. "That's one of those situations where I can't tell you how much we support what he's doing. We're missing him at the same time and can't wait for him to come back, but we completely support him and Jo. That's the way he's supposed to be."

• Indians right-hander Brett Myers (on the 15-day disabled list with a right elbow injury) allowed three runs on four hits and had four walks, one hit batsman and two strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings of a rehab start with Double-A Akron on Wednesday. Antonetti indicated that Myers would need at least one more Minor League rehab start.

"He had a challenging first inning with strike throwing," Antonetti said. "I think he walked four left-handers. Overall, most importantly, he felt healthy. And I think he felt better in his last inning than he did in the first. We're still working through it. He'll make at least one more start."

• With runners on the corners in the fifth inning of Wednesday's 11-7 loss to the Tigers, Indians catcher Yan Gomes threw out Omar Infante on an attempted steal of second base. On the play, Detroit's Don Kelly scored easily from third. Francona said the decision to throw to second was his call.

"That's completely on me," Francona said. "The way the score was, we will exchange a run to get off the field. We've got first and third, one out, and they're knocking the ball all over the ballpark. That was exactly what we were supposed to do."

• Entering Thursday, Indians catchers led the Major Leagues in on-base percentage (.392), slugging percentage (.622) and OPS (1.014), and were tied for first in home runs (11), while ranking second in average (.301), third in doubles (13) and sixth in RBIs (24).