Minneapolis — Not even a fist-bump. Nothing.
Jason Foley, in the most tense moment of the game Sunday, stranded the bases loaded in the eighth inning, striking out Joey Gallo and Byron Buxton, breaking the hearts 31,221 fans at Target Field and preserving a two-run lead, and he walked off the mound without displaying an ounce of emotion.
“Yeah, I wasn’t trying show much after the eighth just because I thought there was a decent chance I’d go back for the ninth,” he said. “I think it’s tough to come back when you spend all your emotional energy or do like a freak out or something.
“I knew there was pretty good chance I had to pitch the ninth. I wanted to stay focused.”
Laser focused. Foley locked down the ninth, too, punching out Ryan Jeffers and Edouard Julien (both looking) and getting former Tiger Willi Castro to line out to left, giving the Tigers a 6-4 win over the Central Division-leading Twins.
“I’m really proud of this group,” manager AJ Hinch said. “I don’t want the eighth-inning stress to be the story of the day. The way our guys handled the bullpen day, the way we hung in offensively and had a really big inning — that’s a testament to winning three games on the road, which is hard to do.”
The Tigers, who came in having lost 11 of 12, won three of four, taking just their second series at Target Field since 2018.
“We didn’t have the last 12 games in the back of our minds,” said Spencer Torkelson, whose two-run homer keyed a five-run fifth inning. “We just focus on the present. They have a really good team over there. We just played a little better.”
Kerry Carpenter followed Torkelson’s homer with his fifth of the season.
For the second time in the series and the third time in two weeks, the Tigers deployed a bullpen start, meaning the plan was to cover the nine innings with relievers.
“It’s tough going into it knowing we have to cover these innings,” said rookie Brendan White, who earned his first Major League win. “It’s just next man up. Make sure you are ready and go execute pitches and get outs.”
But here’s the thing about these bullpen games: They may not be sustainable over the course of a long season. And, in the Tigers’ case, they are being deployed out of desperation because of all the injuries to starting pitchers.
But they can also be extremely effective.
“The day after a bullpen game is the most stressful,” Hinch said. “But getting through the day of the bullpen game is pretty energizing because every pitcher thinks he’s going to pitch at any given moment and I can maximize the lineup the best I can.
“It’s tough on the other side to combat that.”
Hinch played his cards like a shark Sunday.
▶ He pulled starter Will Vest with two outs and two on in the first inning, calling on lefty Tyler Holton to face left-handed hitting Max Kepler. Holton struck him out.
▶ Holton gave up a run in the second but did his job by working through left-handed hitters Gallo, Julien, Castro and Alex Kirilloff — striking out three of the four — before turning it over to right-hander White with two outs in the third.
▶ White got six straight outs with three strikeouts before Hinch brought in lefty Chasen Shreve, again using him to get the lefties at the top of the order, which he did.
▶ With two outs in the sixth, Carlos Correa singled off Shreve. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli sent up right-handed hitting Royce Lewis to hit for Kepler. Hinch countered with right-hander Jose Cisnero, who struck him out in three pitches.
“The part that’s important is that the guys who came in during innings did their part,” Hinch said. “The inherited runners part, even if a couple scored on the ground ball hit (in the eighth), but each time we had the matchup and were able to line it up, those guys came in, got the out and then went out again.”
At that point, Baldelli had taken two of his top three left-handed hitters out of the game, which matched up well with the back-end of the Tigers’ bullpen — right-handers Cisnero, Alex Lange and Foley.
“There’s a reason why managers use these games in playoff games or high-stress games,” Hinch said. “You want to match up and give your guys the best chance for success. So if you’re healthy and can absorb the innings, it’s a terrific tool that can make it difficult on a particular lineup.
“It’s tough to build lineups against it.”
One of the pitfalls of using a string of relievers, though, is the likelihood that one or more might not have their best stuff that day.
Lange was that guy Sunday. He entered in the eighth inning with the Tigers’ up 6-1 and didn’t get an out. He walked two, hit Michael A. Taylor in the back of the head with an 83-mph curveball, gave up an RBI double to Castro and threw a wild pitch that brought in a run.
He gave up three runs and left with the bases loaded.
“Langer is a huge part of our bullpen,” catcher Eric Haase said. “He’s been lock down in big situations for us all year. None of us are worried about it. We know what he’s capable of.”
Foley had Lange’s back. He gave up an RBI single to Solano (the last run charged to Lange), but retired Kyle Farmer on a shallow fly to left and started punching hitters out. Gallo and Buxton in the eighth, Jeffers and Julien in the ninth.
“We know it’s not easy coming into the situation with no margin for error,” Hinch said. “I love the fact he challenged those guys with strikes and beat some guys in the strike zone with his back against the wall.”
Foley threw 22 two-seam sinkers, 16 in the eighth, with an average velocity of 98 mph.
“Obviously, it was working pretty well, especially to the glove side,” Foley said. “If I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down with my best pitches more often than not.”
There is a toll to pay, though, for so much bullpen usage.
“The next day you pay the price,” Hinch said. “The starting pitcher has a lot of pressure on him. You contemplate your roster moves and things like that. But that’s our reality right now until we get healthier here pretty soon.”
Rookie Reese Olson will be tasked with giving the Tigers some length Monday against the Royals at Comerica Park in his fourth big-league outing.
Asked if there could eventually be a fallout from this much work, reliever Tyler Alexander said, “Probably. We’ll deal with it when we get there. It is what it is. But our bullpen is built for it. We have long guys, guys that can go one-plus and two innings. We’re built for it and we’re going to keep grinding through it.”
Hinch has preached “Win today’s game” since the day he arrived in Detroit. The way he’s using every resource available every game is a testament to practicing what he preaches.
“We taxed our guys,” he said. “The pen threw a lot of innings. We had some big performances out of the two starters that pitched in this series (Matthew Boyd and Joey Wentz) and we were in position to win four out of four. We won three out of four. I love that part.
“This is not an easy place to play. We have not played well every time we’ve come here. It is good to stand up for yourself. We’re playing better and our offense has been perking up.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky
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