Whitecaps #18 Omar Infante walks back to the dugout after striking out against the Fort Wayne TinCaps. The Detroit Tiger second baseman was playing with the whitecaps as a rehab assignment Thursday July 25, 2013. (Jon M. Brouwer|MLIVE.COM)

(Jon M. Brouwer | MLive.com)

COMSTOCK PARK, MI – The Detroit Tigers shouldn’t plan on getting their second baseman back any time soon.

Omar Infante took a significant step back in his second game with the West Michigan Whitecaps, leaving in the fourth inning Thursday, July 25, due to persistent pain to his injured left ankle.

“I’m feeling a lot of pain in my ankle right now,” he said after the Whitecaps defeated Fort Wayne 4-3 before 8,476 at Fifth Third Ballpark. “I’m taking the ground ball, and I was feeling it a lot.”

He planned to return to Detroit on Thursday night and be re-evaluated Friday morning before deciding the next step. Before the game, he had already tempered his rehab plans for Toledo.

When asked how the ankle felt after the game, Infante said, “real bad. Now when I’m walking I feel pain.”

As for an extended stay on the disabled list, Infante replied, “Maybe. We’ll see tomorrow … I think I come (back) too soon. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Infante, after serving as designated hitter Wednesday, started at second and singled in his first at bat. He later struck out swinging against left-handed starter Max Fried, the San Diego Padres’ first-round pick in 2012.

In the field, he had one putout on a slow roller in the second inning that he appeared to field smoothly and without pain.

“I don’t have a problem for hitting, but I have a problem for running,” he said without citing anything specific that may have aggravated the injury.

The outcome was better for left-handed reliever Darin Downs, the other member of the Tigers on a rehab assignment.

Downs, coming back from rotator cuff tendonitis, threw a perfect sixth inning in relief of starter Jake Thompson, who got the win and allowed five hits and no walks in five innings.

Downs got a strike out swinging, a fly out and fielded a comebacker to the mound – with snowcone – for the third out.

“I came out of it feeling good and shoulder felt good and that’s the main thing at this point,” said Downs, who has been on the disabled list since July 7.

He planned to return to Detroit on Friday morning and anticipated being activated in time for the Tigers’ home game against Philadelphia. Downs has appeared in 26 games with a 5.18 ERA in 33 innings.

The appearances by Infante and Downs marked the first time Whitecaps have had two major league players appear in the same game.

Connor Harrell hit a two-run home run to straightaway center field in the fourth to tie in 2-2, and the Whitecaps went ahead in the fifth on another pair of runs, on RBI singles by Danry Vasquez and Jared Reaves – who replaced Infante in the game.

In the ninth, reliever Cory Knebel stranded a runner on third with one out to preserve the win.

The teams play 7 p.m. Friday with former Tiger Don Wert signing autographs before the game.

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