Royals give Salvador Perez a day off, but he is expected to return on Wednesday

Salvador Perez received a day off to rest his bruised left palm, but Royals manager Ned Yost expected Perez to return to the lineup on Wednesday afternoon.

Perez departed in the third inning of Monday’s victory over the Mariners. He absorbed a foul ball on his hand. An X-ray and a fluoroscope test each came back negative.

“It’s a bit of a bruise,” Yost said. “He’s playing tomorrow. He could play today. But when you swing [the bruise] is where the knob is. I want to give him one more day.”

Omar Infante is back in the lineup. He returned to the field after 11 days off to rest his sore right shoulder. He’ll play second base.

Here is the lineup as Jason Vargas faces the Dodgers this afternoon:

1. Nori Aoki, RF.

2. Omar Infante, 2B.

3. Alex Gordon, LF.

4. Billy Butler, 1B.

5. Justin Maxwell, DH.

6. Danny Valencia, 3B.

7. Lorenzo Cain, CF.

8. Brett Hayes, C.

9. Alcides Escobar, SS.

Escobar is slated to pull double-duty. Yost indicated Escobar, Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Danny Valencia and Jarrod Dyson will all bat in a minor-league game against the Rangers at 9:30 a.m. local time.

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The starting schedule for the next week features one interesting detail.

March 11: Jason Vargas

March 12: Yordano Ventura

March 13: Jeremy Guthrie

March 14: Danny Duffy (with Bruce Chen starting a minor-league game)

March 15: James Shields

March 16: Vargas

Perhaps you will notice Ventura is slotted into the third spot in the rotation after Shields and Vargas. It doesn’t mean much at this point, of course, but it’s something to remember.

This story was originally published March 11, 2014 at 10:41 AM with the headline "Royals give Salvador Perez a day off, but he is expected to return on Wednesday."