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Detroit Tigers right fielder Torii Hunter tumbles into the bullpen on the Game 2 grand slam by the Red Sox's David Ortiz, to the delight of Boston Police officer Steve Horgan.

(The Associated Press)

DETROIT -- Torii Hunter said a bruised head won't keep him out of Tuesday's Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

The Detroit Tigers right fielder had a tender noggin and mild headache to show for his head-over-heels effort to keep David Ortiz's game-tying grand slam in the ballpark in Sunday's Game 2 at Boston.

Ortiz's blast in the eighth inning pushed the Red Sox to a 6-5 win, evening the best-of-seven series at 1-1 with the next three games at Comerica Park.

"I'm just going to go ahead and get a massage, get some treatment, maybe get in the hot tub, loosen up a little bit, and I'll be fine," Hunter said. "I'm good. We've got a day off today, just enjoy it, give it 24 hours to heal, and I'll be ready to go tomorrow."

Hunter tumbled over the wall in right-center and landed on his head in the bullpen.

He said Monday that he felt sore "from the ankle all the way to the neck."

"I was kind of out of it for a minute, a little groggy" after the play, Hunter said. "But when your adrenaline's going, you don't feel that much -- until this morning."

Hunter said he would undergo more testing but that his biggest dismay was not catching the ball.

He said he could have made the play if he hadn't lost Ortiz's line drive in the lights. By the time he regained sight of the ball, "it was kind of by me," Hunter said.

"At the end of the day, if I catch that ball, we're still alive at 2-0, if we win that game," he said. "So I was going to give it every attempt to go out there and try to catch that ball. If it takes for me to get knocked out, or die on the field, I guess I've got to do it. This is what I do. This is my life. I don't do anything else. Baseball is my life. It's what I do."

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