Brad Ausmus acknowledged his status as a lame-duck manager for the first time this season.Ausmus is in the third and final year of his contract with the Detroit Tigers.

"When you have a payroll like ours, the manager's the guy that's in the crosshairs," Ausmus said. "That's fine. I knew when I took this job, I was probably going to get fired before I walked away from it. Not this job in particular, but just managing in general.

"How many managers walk away from a job?"