DETROIT — Miguel Cabrera’s lingering injury took him out of the lineup in the middle of Thursday’s game, but it won’t keep him out of the lineup, he insists.

“I’m OK. Don't worry,” he said after the Tigers’ 7-6 walk-off win over the A’s. “I'll play tomorrow.”

Cabrera hit a two-out shot to the gap in right-center field in the fifth inning, but could not trot fast enough to beat the relay throw to second base, and was out. He appeared to grab the back of his left leg after his awkward slide (see above), then hobbled to the dugout with one hand on his hip, and did not return to the game.

“You don’t feel very comfortable when you see any of your players look like they might be hurt or in pain. At least I knew what this was, right off the bat. You had a pretty good idea it was probably aggravation of it. But really nothing knew. Not like he made the slide in there, and hurt an ankle, or something like that,” manager Jim Leyland said, admitting that the pain isn’t isolated to his slugger’s midsection.

“Well, I think it all goes hand-in-hand. It’s one of those things that’s up in here, but it just runs down your leg. It’s not like a sciatic nerve, or anything, it’s a muscle. It moved down in the groin one time, then it got tight there. I think it just goes down the leg a little bit. I can’t answer that. That’s what the trainers tell me.”

The official diagnosis was abdominal discomfort. Cabrera is day to day.

Don Kelly, who had started in right field, replaced him at third base.

“I saw him afterwards, he had a big smile,” manager Jim Leyland said. “He wasn’t moving around too good but I think he’ll be OK.”

Cabrera hasn’t been moving around too well for more than a month.

That hasn’t stopped him from starting 125 of 133 possible games so far this season. He’s missed the entirety of seven games since he first got hurt in July.