Pittsburgh, PA (SportsNetwork.com) – Shane Greene is 2-for-2 with the Detroit
Tigers.
Two starts, two dominating wins.
The 26-year-old right-hander threw eight more shutout innings in a 2-0 win
over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night.
Acquired in December from the New York Yankees, Greene (2-0) gave up three
hits, no walks and struck out three over his eight frames, retiring the final
10 batters he faced to outduel veteran A.J. Burnett.
He threw eight spectacular innings in his Tigers debut last Thursday, allowing
four hits and striking out five while throwing 65 of his 85 pitches for
strikes in a 7-1 win over Minnesota.
He threw 56 strikes in 81 pitches against the Pirates and Joakim Soria pitched
a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his third save.
“Greene pitched outstanding and Soria was able to close it out,” said Detroit
manager Brad Ausmus. “It was a tough battle. … A.J. Burnett pitched great
and their bullpen came in and did a nice job. We basically scraped out two
runs.”
The Pirates won the opener of the three-game series 5-4 on Monday to hand
Detroit its first loss of the season.
Burnett (0-1) was good, too, pitching a shutout into the seventh inning before
Pittsburgh scored its first run. The 38-year-old righty had eight strikeouts,
giving up one run, seven hits and two walks in 6 2/3 frames.
He allowed six baserunners — five on singles — before issuing the first two
walks of the game to Alex Avila and Jose Iglesias with one out in the seventh.
Rajai Davis followed with a two-out single, chasing Burnett and bringing in
Arquimedes Caminero, who retired Ian Kinsler on a ground ball back to the
pitcher to end the inning.
“I felt strong. Delivery got out of whack in the seventh a little bit,” said
Burnett. “Up until those walks, I held it together pretty good.”
The Tigers scored their second run in the ninth inning after Jose Iglesias
hustled to second base to turn his broken-bat hit into a one-out double and
then scored on Kinsler’s single off Rob Scahill.
Pittsburgh’s three hits were all singles: by Pedro Alvarez in the second
inning, Josh Harrison in the third and Francisco Cervelli in the fifth.
Jordy Mercer hit a ball hard off Greene in the eighth, but Kinsler made a
diving catch at second base to end the inning.
Game Notes
The Tigers snapped a five-game losing streak in Pittsburgh … Pirates manager
Clint Hurdle was ejected by home plate umpire David Rackley in the top of the
eighth inning over something he said from the dugout … Burnett threw 111
pitches, including 69 strikes.
