Shane Greene bounces back as Detroit Tigers top Atlanta Braves

Shane Greene had a dreadful debut in a Detroit Tigers’ uniform last Sunday, but he bounced back nicely and looked more like the player the Detroit Tigers traded for in the offseason. His effort on Friday helped the Tigers top the Atlanta Braves 12-2 at Walt Disney World.

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Greene had allowed three runs on six hits in two innings against Philadelphia, but was perfect over three innings today.

For the second time in just over a week, the Tigers knocked out the Braves starter before the conclusion of the first inning. Anthony Gose, still firing on all cylinders, opened the game with a triple and was brought home on a Jose Iglesias ground out. One batter later, Tyler Collins reached on an error from second baseman Alberto Callaspo.

Two singles from Jordan Lennerton and James McCann, followed by walks to Hernan Perez and Andrew Romine chased Atlanta starter Mike Foltynewicz just eight days after the Tigers knocked out Shelby Miller in a game at Disney last Thursday. The Tigers went on to score five runs and sent 11 men to the plate. They later added a run in the seventh inning.

Tigers’ pitching was the story. Going up against the light-hitting Braves seemed to perk up the already beleaguered bullpen arms. After Greene’s stellar outing, Joba Chamberlain and Al Alburquerque each threw scoreless innings.

Buck Farmer ran into trouble in his second inning of work, loading the bases before departing in the seventh inning. With Josh Zeid coming on in relief, Zoilo Almonte came within a hair of hitting a Grand Slam, but the wind held it up and it went for a deep sacrifice fly to score the first Atlanta run. Another run scored on a short flare into left field to make it 6-2.

Detroit added a pair of garbage time runs because of an error in the eighth inning and then four more on the wildness of the no-named pitchers Atlanta used in the ninth inning.

The Detroit Tigers return home to Lakeland and face the Philadelphia Phillies at 1:05 PM on Saturday.  The game will be broadcast on WXYT 1270

Notes:

• Ian Kinsler made the trip, but was a late scratch with shoulder soreness. He joins Yoenis Cespedes and Alex Avila who are also nursing minor injuries and are listed as day-to-day.
• Speaking of injuries, for the first time in Spring Training, Jose Iglesias played in his second straight game.

Next: Fantasy Friday: Top 5 Pitchers in 2015 AL Central