DETROIT — Miguel Cabrera has been day-to-day with injuries for several weeks, at first his back, then a hip flexor, missing a total of five games earlier this month.

He has not finished any of the previous four games he started, either — three due to concerns about the injury, and one when he was ejected early for arguing balls and strikes.

And he was not in the lineup for Wednesday’s game when it was posted.

Cabrera appeared to tweak the most recent sore spot in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s contest, when he attempted to make a pair of spectacular plays at third. After making a diving stop and throw to get Wilson Ramos, Cabrera tried to make a bare-handed play on Chad Tracy’s dribbler, but bent over in pain after making the late throw.

“Coming in, on the slow-roller. Not the one he made the great play on, but the roller. It bothered him a little bit,” Leyland said.

Three innings later, after lining out to third, Cabrera came out of the game.

“He knows that there are certain plays that are going to stress that area more than other plays,” Rand said. “Obviously, you can see swinging the bat does not. He swings the bat very well. The two plays to his right, no problems on those, but when he came in on that other play and came up, yeah, he felt it at that point. He tweaked it a little bit. ... That’s something he’s going to feel. As long as he’s able to plug through that, he’s OK.”

Wednesday's lineup: 
Austin Jackson, CF
Torii Hunter, RF
Matt Tuiasosopo, LF
Prince Fielder, 1B
Victor Martinez, DH
Jhonny Peralta, SS
Hernan Perez, 2B
Ramon Santiago, 3B
Alex Avila, C

Starting pitcher: Justin Verlander, RHP