Detroit — Tigers’ right-hander Jason Foley has been an aggressive participant in many a postgame beer shower the last couple of years. Beer showers, which involve a multitude of powders, liquids and food products, are administered to players who get a first — a first win, a first save, etc.
Foley was the one who famously introduced tuna to Will Vest’s beer shower last season.
Well, the boys got their payback Tuesday after Foley earned his first save, closing out the 1-0 win over the Guardians.
“Yeah, Vest was upset because we didn’t have any tuna,” he said, smiling.
Foley dispatched left-handed hitting Will Brennan and right-handed hitting Myles Straw on groundouts. Then he punched out switch-hitting Jose Ramirez with a changeup out of the strike zone.
“I was feeling pretty good, especially after getting those first two ground balls,” he said. “I was just trying to throw (Ramirez) some quality pitches away and not give him a chance to put one out of the yard. I just kept going away with sinkers and changeups.”
The changeup is a relatively new weapon for him. He’s had trouble the past two seasons against left-handed hitters. The changeup, coupled with better command of his money pitch, the hard, upper-90s sinker, has reversed his fortunes.
“It’s been really good,” Foley said of the changeup. “It’s an important pitch for me just to get them off the sinker. The more comfortable I get throwing that, the better off I will be.”
In the small sample so far, lefties are 1 for 7 against Foley with five strikeouts. He’s thrown 14 changeups, 11 to lefties, and 75% of the swings have been whiffs.
“The more I can run that sinker in on (left-handers’) hands, or up and in, and then work that changeup away, the more I’m going to be able to have success,” he said.
What’s in a song?
Speaking of Foley, his taste in walk-out music is a little unique — very much on the opposite spectrum from Edwin Diaz’s trumpets or Mariano Rivera’s “Enter Sandman.”
Foley is using the song made famous by the Saturday Night Live sketch, “What is Love (Baby Don’t Hurt Me)” by Haddaway.
“I don’t really stick to one walk-out song,” he said. “I just want something fun. I don’t want something that’s going to hype me up too much. Just a feel-good song. And that’s one I kind of landed on.”
Battle up
Tyler Nevin, with the tying run on second base in the bottom of the ninth inning Wednesday, engaged in an epic 11-pitch confrontation with Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase.
“I was 0-2 for it felt like a year,” he said.
Almost. Down 0-2, he fouled off eight straight pitches — six cutters at 96 to 99 mph and two sliders at 90-91 mph. He ended up popping out an the 11th pitch, a slider.
“Against a guy like him, you can’t come off the fastball,” Nevin said. “You just battle and try to stay short, bat to ball. He’s one of the best in the game and he got the best of me there.”
Nevin wasn’t in the mood to accept congratulations for the gritty at-bat.
“You definitely want the result,” he said. “But I’m not going to pout about it. You want the result and nothing else really matters at that point. It was a good battle. I’ll get him next time.”
Around the horn
Eduardo Rodriguez went eight shutout innings Tuesday, struck out 10 and didn’t walk a single batter in Game 2 Tuesday. Per Baseball Reference, he became the third pitcher in Tigers’ history to accomplish that stat-line, joining Wild Bill Donovan (1908) and Max Scherzer (2012).
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky