Detroit Tigers beat New York Yankees behind strong relief pitching

The Detroit Tigers received strong pitching by a near cast of thousands as the team relied heavily on their bullpen for a second straight day, however today they claimed a rare Grapefruit League victory in their penultimate spring training game, besting the New York Yankees 3-2 in Lakeland, Florida.

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Shane Greene was originally scheduled to start this game but was scraped in order for the rotation to begin to align after the disabled list designation of Justin Verlander on Thursday morning. Instead reliever Angel Nesbitt started, going two innings of one-hit, no run ball.

As they did Wednesday in Kissmmee against Houston when they also started a reliever (Kyle Ryan), the Tigers changed pitchers often in the game giving work to some of the relievers that will be on the 25-man roster and others that are headed for Toledo, Erie and all points beyond.

Tom Gorzelanny and Blaine Hardy pitched in their second consecutive games and Joba Chamberlains, Ian Krol, Angel Cabrera and Rafael Dolis also saw action. Hardy and Krol allowed single runs in the fifth and seventh respectively.

The Tigers scored all three of their runs in the fourth inning when a Nick Castellanos single drove home Miguel Cabrera and J.D. Martinez. A little while later Yoenis Cespedes flashed his speed by scoring on a wild pitch from third base when the ball did not even go past catcher Bryan Mitchell.

Cabrera and Victor Martinez combined to go 1-for-7 with Miggy picking up a walk. Jose Iglesias picked up a rare spring hit to increase his average to .106.

Awesome.

The 11-19 Tigers will wrap up the 2015 Spring Training home schedule on Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays at Joker Marchant Stadium. Gametime is 1:05 and it will be broadcast on FSD and WXYT. Anibal Sanchez is the scheduled starter for Detroit.

Next: Verlander and Rondon headed to DL

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