Tigers turn to Greene in finale with Twins

(SportsNetwork.com) - Shane Greene hopes to rebound and pitch the Detroit Tigers to a series victory on Wednesday afternoon in the conclusion of a three-game set with the Minnesota Twins.

Greene saw his run of three straight winning starts to open the campaign halted in a big way on Friday versus Cleveland. The 26-year-old righty had yielded only one unearned run over his first 23 innings, but was hammered for eight runs and nine hits over four innings of a 13-1 setback to the Indians.

"I take full responsibility," said Greene, whose earned run average jumped from 0.39 to 3.00. "This (loss) is on me."

Greene's season-opening win streak included his first career appearance against the Twins on April 9 and he got the win while allowing one unearned run over eight frames.

Phil Hughes will make his fifth start of the season today for the Twins seeking his first victory.

Hughes is off to an 0-4 start while pitching to a 4.39 ERA. However, he was solid last time out despite a complete-game loss in Seattle on Friday, charged with two runs, both on solo homers, over his eight frames with nine strikeouts.

The righty did take a 4-0 loss in Detroit on April 6. Hughes also yielded a pair of homers in that one, charged with four runs over six frames with six strikeouts. The 28-year-old fell to 7-7 with a 4.07 ERA in 15 games (13 starts) versus Detroit.

The Twins were outscored 22-1 in getting swept out of Detroit from April 6-9 and lost 5-4 on Monday's opener. However, Minnesota won for the fourth time in six games overall with last night's 3-2 decision over the Tigers.

Danny Santana had three hits and drove in a run, while Kurt Suzuki's single in the seventh inning chased home the go-ahead run. His big hit came not long after Eduardo Escobar tied the contest with a double that chased home Eduardo Nunez.

Mike Pelfrey was strong yet again for Minnesota, yielding just a pair of runs -- one earned -- on three hits over seven innings. He also struck out seven batters, a total he hadn't reached since Sept. 6, 2013.

Pelfrey has only given up two earned runs over his last 19 innings.

"That's a pretty good team over there," Pelfrey said of the Tigers. "You don't get many breaks ... The guys did a good job of fighting in there and pulling it out."

Anibal Sanchez took the hard-luck loss after surrendering all three runs over seven innings.

"He was a little wild today," said Tigers catcher Alex Avila. "Lot of life on his fastball. It was a step in the right direction for him."

Detroit had a three-game win streak halted.