CHICAGO -- A deer hunting trip will have to wait.

Left-hander Kyle Ryan had been planning to head to South Carolina to go deer hunting once Triple-A Toledo wrapped up its season. Instead, he'll be on the mound for the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night for the second game of a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox.

The game will mark the major league debut for Ryan, a 22-year-old who has made just five starts above the Double-A level.

Ryan is an avid hunter. "Everything from squirrels to gators," he said. He had been planning to head south to hunt right after the Mud Hens wrapped up their season, but he was happy to change his plans when Toledo manager Larry Parrish told him he was headed to the Tigers instead.

Ryan posted so-so numbers for Double-A Erie before thriving in five starts at Toledo. He went 7-10 with a 4.55 ERA and a 1.358 WHIP with Erie, but he was 3-0 with a 1.64 ERA and 0.788 ERA for Toledo.

Ryan said he felt he was helped by the fact that Triple-A hitters were not familiar with him.

"There's a big difference between facing somebody for the first time and them not knowing you," he said and then them coming out the second time and they're like, 'Oh, we know what you throw now. Now we're going to make you work.' "

He'll be banking on that helping him again Saturday night when he faces major-league hitters for the first time.

Ryan said he expects to have plenty of family members at the game. His parents are driving up from Auburndale, Fla., which is just a short drive from Lakeland. That's where Ryan was born and played high school baseball.

"My mom is the baby of 13," he said. "Just about all of that family is in Michigan, so I've got a lot of family going to make it. Some live in Lansing, but the majority live in the Escanaba area. At West Michigan, they came to a lot of games."

Ryan, who shot a gun for the first time -- a .410 during a partridge hunt -- while visiting family in Michigan, said he hunts a lot in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. He even has a job processing deer in the offseason. But he was more than happy to put off his next trip when Parrish told him the news.

"I got called into the office," he said. "He's like, 'I've got some terrible news for you. You're going to have to delay your hunting trip for a little while.' I said, 'If it's for what I think it is, it's delayable, that's for sure. Hunting can definitely wait."

Ryan will serve as the 26th player on the roster for the doubleheader Saturday and will almost certainly be sent back to Toledo after the second game. But with rosters expanding next week, it's a good bet that he'll stick around for a while.

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