DETROIT -- Right-hander Shane Greene pitched six shutout innings before Minnesota scored its first run of the season and J.D. Martinez drove in three runs Thursday to lead the Detroit Tigers to a 7-1 victory and a three-game sweep of the Twins.

Detroit blanked Minnesota in the first two games of the series to set a club record for shutouts at the start of a season. The 1963 St. Louis Cardinals remain the only team to have held their first three opponents without a run.

The game was delayed three hours and 36 minutes at the start by rain.

Minnesota did not score in its first 25 innings, an American League record but one inning shy of the major league mark of 26 set by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1943.

Twins first baseman Joe Mauer walked to lead off the seventh inning and came around to score with one out on a double to left-center field by designated hitter Kennys Vargas that skipped by Tigers left fielder Yoenis Cespedes for an error. The run became unearned when the next two batters struck out and flied out.

Greene, obtained from the New York Yankees in a three-way deal this winter, allowed four hits, but no more than one in any inning, and walked just one batter. He struck out five in eight innings.

Veteran left-hander Tom Gorzelanny worked the ninth for the Tigers in his first appearance of the season and allowed one hit.

Third baseman Nick Castellanos tripled leading off the fifth inning and scored on a line single to right by catcher Alex Avila to give Detroit a 7-0 lead.

Martinez capped a three-run fourth with his two-run homer, his second home run this season. Detroit's other run in the inning scored on a bases-loaded double play.

The Tigers scored twice in the first on RBI singles by Martinez and Cespedes and once in the second on an RBI single by designated hitter Victor Martinez.

The previous Minnesota franchise record for scoreless innings at the start of a season was 19 by the 1940 Washington Senators.

NOTES: Twins RHP Ricky Nolasco, pounded for six runs, six hits and four walks Wednesday, was flown back to Minnesota on Thursday for examination of his ailing elbow. "We won't know anything about a decision until later," manager Paul Molitor said. "We hope it isn't serious." ... Detroit LHP Blaine Hardy was on the bus from Toledo to Louisville on Wednesday when he was informed of his call-up to the Tigers. "I was a little confused about LP (manager Larry Parrish) calling me," Hardy said. "He was right on the bus in front of me." ... Twins LF Eduardo Escobar and C Chris Herrmann were scheduled to make their first starts of the season Thursday.