Game 114: The big and mean Greene Machine

The Yankees and Tiger conclude their four-game series in the Bronx this afternoon with a matinee matchup at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees have won two of the first three games of the series so far, winning Wednesday night's game 5-1 -- the first game decided by more than two runs that the Yankees have played in since July 19.

The Yankees have won four of their last five games, playing better baseball lately, and it's mostly because of their strong pitching staff, which has been performing very well since the All-Star break, even with the ridiculous amount of injuries.

Today's lineup against Detroit:

LF Brett Gardner
3B Martin Prado
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
DH Carlos Beltran
1B Chase Headley
SS Stephen Drew
C Francisco Cervelli
RF Ichiro Suzuki
2B Brendan Ryan

Pitching matchup preview:

With an actual defense behind him today, Shane Greene takes the mound for the Yankees this afternoon, making his sixth start of the season in the big leagues.

Greene is coming off of a sub-par start against the Boston Red Sox last weekend, giving up three early runs before battling back to get through 4 2/3 inning, taking home a no-decision.

Rick Porcello gets the ball for Detroit in today's series finale, becoming the first non-Cy Young winner to face the Yankees this week, following up Max Scherzer, David Price, and Justin Verlander.

Porcello, though, has pitched like a Cy Young winner for the Tigers lately, going 5-1 with a sub-2.00 ERA over his last seven starts. However, he comes into today's game 0-1 with an ERA of 8.10 in two career starts at Yankee Stadium.

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