Miguel Cabrera came out of Thursday afternoon’s game with right ankle soreness, but Jim Leyland’s not going to do anything silly to get him back in the lineup if it’s not right.

“I don’t know, the trainers didn’t seem too concerned. I saw Miggy after the game and he didn’t seem too concerned,” Leyland said. “But one thing about Miggy: If he can play, he’ll play, and I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

The slugger appeared to be limping when he hit the first-base bag, running out a fly ball in the first inning. Two batters into the second, the training staff and manager Jim Leyland came out to check on the third baseman, and removed him from the game.

Cabrera has been nursing a sore left ankle that’s been struck by foul tips several in recent weeks, but this was different.

“It’s where he stepped on the plate the other day and slipped. And he kind of aggravated it,” Leyland said.

He had not missed a start yet this season, and came into Thursday’s game, leading Major League Baseball with 105 RBI, 52 multi-hit games, 281 total bases, second in the big leagues in slugging percentage (.584) and second in the American League in batting (.326).

“Look at the lineups, look at them all over baseball. Guys get days off. If you have to give a guy a day off — I mean, I’m not going to put a guy out there that’s hurt, that can’t perform. If it means give him a day, if it means give him two days, you give it to him. You give it until the kid’s right. I’m not going to. If he’s playing in a lot of pain, I don’t want to do that. So we’ll just have to figure out another way to go about it.”