FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers came from behind and beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-5, on Tuesday at Hammond Stadium.

Detroit is 11-10 in Grapefruit League play.

What happened

Matt Manning, who has already been cut from the big-league camp, got the start for the Tigers.

And the Twins had little trouble against him.

Manning lasted just 3⅓ innings, giving up seven hits and five earned runs.

But the Tigers came back and scored three in the ninth inning, taking the lead on a fielding error.

Getting started

There was a familiar face in centerfield. With all the focus on Parker Meadows’ injury, not to mention Wenceel Pérez coming back from injury, Riley Greene has quietly started five games in center. But something happened that nobody from the Tigers front office wanted to see. Or the coaches. Greene dove for a ball hit by Ty France. He didn’t come up with it, but prevented extra bases.

You can’t prevent Greene from playing all out. But still, nobody wants to see him diving in spring training.

Later, he had another play, where he went to for a slide, instead of a dive.

In some ways, Greene is the safety net for all defensive moves – when people get moved around, Greene can always return to center.

But the trick for Hinch will be figuring how much Greene can handle in center.

After the game, Hinch was asked about Greene diving.

“Then, I took him out of the game,” Hinch laughed. “It’s punishment for diving in a spring training game.”

Hinch smiled – clearly, he was joking. “I laugh about that,” Hinch said. “But that’s the way he plays. And the middle of the field is gonna be a lot of action. I’m not gonna operate with being nervous with him out there because he can do some incredible things in center field, but that’s a good example of how active he is in center field.”

On the mound

When Manning was cut, Hinch said at the time: “We talked a lot about his pitch usage, getting himself to trust his stuff in the zone, finding the right breaking ball, using his split more. It’s a combination of things. He’s just a small adjustment away from really helping us.”

But it doesn’t appears he’s found that small adjustment yet.

He threw 72 pitches, 43 of them strikes.

“It’s an important year for him and for us,” Hinch said after announcing the Manning cut. “I truly believe he’s going to pitch in the big leagues, and maybe relatively soon.”

But he’s still got work to do before that happens.

“He flashed some really good things but he was also in a lot of trouble,” Hinch said after the game. “The hard part about his outing is he didn’t get the first batter out in any of the innings he pitched. That created traffic for him.”

At the plate

This game was played before thousands of Tigers fans, who were part of sellout crowd of 8,576. At one point in the second inning, the pro-Tigers crowd drowned out the Twins fans:

“Go Green!”

“Go White!”

And it continued until somebody chanted: “Go Blue!”

Later, at a moment when the Tigers’ offense was doing nothing and they trailed 5-0, Spartans and Wolverines fans united: “Let’s go Tigers!”

And it seemed to spark the Tigers. Then, Justyn-Henry Malloy drilled a two-run single, and Dillon Dingler had an RBI single.

In addition, Kerry Carpenter had a pair of hits – one was a sun double where the centerfielder couldn’t see the ball – but it all counts the same: Carpenter lifted his spring average to a sparkling .359. “When he gets his timing right, there’s not a pitcher that wasn’t to face him,” Hinch said.

Three stars

1. Malloy.

2. Dingler.

3. Carpenter.

Next up: Red Sox

Wednesday (1:05 p.m.) vs. Minnesota in Fort Myers.