BASEBALL: Angels' Greinke shows his top form

Former Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke looked sharp in Friday's 2-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers. (Dave Reginek / Getty Images)

DETROIT - Allow four to six weeks for delivery?

The former Cy Young Award winner the Angels ordered up almost a month ago finally arrived Friday as right-hander Zack Greinke took a shutout into the eighth inning and combined with two relievers on a five-hitter as the Angels beat the Detroit Tigers 2-1 in the opener of a three-game series against one of their fellow wild-card hopefuls.

Friday's win was an entirely different genus than Thursday's 14-13 thrill ride at Fenway Park. But Greinke's start was the Angels' third quality start in what is now a four-game winning streak.

It's the kind of roll the Angels thought Greinke's addition to the rotation would foster. But he was 1-2 with a 6.19 ERA in his first five starts with the Angels and seemed to be beating himself up over it, calling it "a very embarrassing first month here" after his loss to the Rays on Sunday.

"Hopefully," Greinke said when asked if he felt more like himself Friday in a familiar AL Central locale. "I've been comfortable for awhile (with the Angels).

"I've just been pitching bad."

In his 10 starts before Friday, Greinke had just that one victory with a 6.28 ERA and Angels manager Mike Scioscia offered he was "a little out of whack mechanically in some things he was doing."

Greinke said he had made some adjustments in his mechanics before Friday's start but "it's not like it was anything big." Nonetheless, he did admit to overthrowing

in recent starts - again, another possible sign of trying too hard to make a big impression on his new team.

"I feel like I used to be able to throw as hard as I could whenever I could," Greinke said. "Now, I need to stay within myself. I have to work to stay more mechanically sound. Maybe that's just getting older."

The Angels did their only damage in the sixth inning when Torii Hunter broke up a double play to keep the inning alive and Howie Kendrick followed with a two-run double.

Source: http://www.sgvtribune.com/sports/ci_21398418/baseball-angels-greinke-shows-his-top-form?source=rss

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