'I just blacked out': Lee's 3 RBIs, including go-ahead home run, lead Tigers' comeback

CHICAGO -- When Hao-Yu Lee went to his first big-league Spring Training a year and a half ago, he sought advice from Tigers teammates Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter. He wanted to know how they dealt with striking out and the frustration that comes with it.

Lee wears his heart on his sleeve. He can also be his own toughest critic. So when his errant bobble on Brenton Doyle’s ground ball on Friday scored a run and extended the opening inning for Colson Montgomery’s bases-clearing double, part of six White Sox unearned runs dumped on rookie starter Andrew Sears, Lee could’ve easily checked out mentally.

“I kind of botched the play I was supposed to finish,” Lee said through translator Peter Lin. “I was kind of beating myself up for it. But luckily we stayed in the game until I finally got one out.”

Seven innings and seemingly a lifetime after that error, as Lee's opposite-field loft sent White Sox right fielder Braden Montgomery to the right-field fence until he finally out of room for a game-tying two-run homer, the emotions came out on his trip around the bases. He turned to his dugout on his way around first base and flexed his arms. Lee rounded second base and pointed out to right field, toward the Tigers' bullpen. He slapped third-base coach Billy Boyer’s hand and waved his arms on his way home. Eduardo Valencia waited for Lee at the plate and gave him a chest bump.

“Everything just came out,” Lee said. “I just blacked out.”

Lee went crazy. And the Tigers' dugout, to a man at the top of the railing, went crazy with him.

“It was awesome,” said Greene, whose two-run homer later in the inning provided the final margin in the 11-8 win. “I think some fans said some things to him and kind of fired him up, so him bringing that energy and showing it, it’s awesome.”

The Tigers faced a 6-1 deficit after the first inning, and an 8-2 deficit after the third. They scored nine unanswered runs from that point on, turning what looked like a White Sox runaway victory into a Tigers comeback reminiscent of their walk-off win over the White Sox in September 2011. The Tigers scored eight unanswered runs that day at Comerica Park, capped by game-tying and walk-off homers from Ryan Raburn and Miguel Cabrera, respectively, four pitches apart.

That 2011 win sent the Tigers on a 12-game winning streak that brought their first division title since 1987. Barring an equally insane closing stretch, Friday’s win won’t change the Tigers’ playoff fate this year. But the comeback, and Lee’s reaction, encapsulates what these Tigers are about, and what they can become.

At times, they look like a teenager playing MLB The Show after one energy drink too many. At times, they look like the AL Central team more people should be fearing.

In addition to a pair of first-inning errors, the Tigers had a runner thrown out at the plate, a pinch-runner picked off at first base and a starting pitcher pulled after throwing 19 of 37 pitches for strikes in two-thirds of an inning. They also executed a perfect 7-6-2 relay to throw out a runner at home on a ball off the left-field fence.

They batted 6-for-11 with runners in scoring position, including Dillon Dingler’s go-ahead single in the eighth. They tossed 8 1/3 innings of two-run relief with a walk and 10 strikeouts after Sears’ first-inning exit, highlighted by two perfect innings and five strikeouts from Drew Sommers.

“It was good to see our guys pick up each other,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “We made mistakes tonight. We’re going to make mistakes. We’re not going to play perfectly. We can play better than we did in parts of that game. But you just keep playing, which I know is tough sometimes because you can ride the emotional roller coaster of an out at home plate or a pickoff.

“There’s a lot that goes into wins like this.”

Lee’s comeback is part of the Tigers’ comeback. The Tigers feed off of his energy, just as Lee has learned to feed off of his teammates’ composure.

“I think everyone saw the way we reacted, and everyone was reacting with him,” said Kevin McGonigle, whose bases-clearing triple started the rally in the fifth. “That’s the way he is. He plays with a lot of excitement. And being his teammate is awesome, to share the moment with him like that. He comes in every day and puts the work in, and for it to pay off like that is just awesome to watch.”