Jones sparks Tigers' late comeback on an emotional Father's Day 

DETROIT – For everybody who gets to celebrate a dad or being a dad on Father’s Day, there’s somebody missing their dad a little more. For Jahmai Jones, Sunday was a little bit of both. It was his first Father’s Day as a dad, but his umpteenth without his own father, former Detroit Lions linebacker Andre Jones, who passed away suddenly from an aneurysm in 2011 when Jahmai was just 13 years old.

“It’s hard to not get emotional on Father’s Day,” said Jones, whose wife and baby daughter were out of town but watched the Tigers’ 5-4 comeback win over the White Sox from afar. “Being a first-time father, it’s a lot to take in. So your emotions are all over the place to begin with.”

Now add the emotion of getting booed by a sellout crowd in the same city where his dad and brother played football, and across the street from where his older brother T.J. played wide receiver for the Lions a decade ago.

It’s obviously not personal. Part of it is Jones as the face of manager A.J. Hinch’s pinch-hit strategy, a key philosophy of Detroit’s success the last two years but a struggle this year. Jones, who posted a .970 OPS against lefties and a .782 OPS as a pinch-hitter last year, is 12-for-72 (.167) with 23 strikeouts against lefties this season and 5-for-28 with 12 strikeouts as a pinch-hitter.

“He’s been through it. He’s going through it,” Hinch said. “And he feels it. He knows it. He hears it.”

That doesn’t make it any easier.

“That’s the first time in my career I’ve been booed by an entire stadium,” Jones said half-jokingly. “I feel like fans forget that we’re trying just as hard, I promise. But obviously, it’s a bad feeling. You never want to get booed by your home fans. But at the end of the day, I can’t get wrapped up in that. …

“Hopefully I start turning it on so they can forgive me. It’s just part of it. I know the entire city wants us to win. They want us to be good. They know how good we can be as a team. Obviously we want to do that for them, too. I feel for them, I really do. But nobody takes it harder than we do.”

Jones has been booed stepping to the plate to pinch-hit the last two days, and booed heavily upon striking out both times, including with a runner on second in Sunday’s seventh inning. He got a mixed reception stepping to the plate with two outs and the bases empty in the ninth against White Sox closer Seranthony Dominguez.

Jones was 0-for-16 with eight strikeouts against right-handers this season. His first-pitch ground ball to short looked like another out off the bat. Then he hit another gear.

You’ve heard of dad power on baseball, but how about dad speed?

“Obviously I know I haven't been playing as well as I know that I can,” Jones said. “But anytime I get out there, I'm going to give my best effort. I'm going to give everything that I can to try to extend the game. That's just how I was brought up, and my mentality to approach the game.”

Jones reached 29.7 feet per second of sprint speed, just shy of the 30.0 elite threshold. He didn’t look at shortstop Luisangel Acuña as he stepped into the hole to field the ball and fire to first. He just took off and hoped for a hesitation or a bobble.

“When I hit first, I thought I beat the sound of [the ball hitting first baseman Jacob Gonzalez’s mitt], even though it was really close,” Jones said. “Then I was like, ‘Dude, I think I’m safe.’”

The ensuing replay challenge was agonizing. Seeing his foot hit the bag on the giant video board gave him confidence, but not certainty.

“Please, Lord, let this be a hit,” Jones said he thought. “It’s Father’s Day, man. But you really never know when it goes to replay. Fingers crossed.”

Once the call stood, the fans erupted, including some of the same fans who booed Jones seconds earlier.

“We talk about everything matters,” Hinch said. “And at his lowest, and this is probably the lowest for him in how he’s contributed for this organization and this team, it’s nice to see him do something to help us.”

The Tigers, meanwhile, took off. Back-to-back singles from Kevin McGonigle and Dillon Dingler, the latter with two strikes, tied the game. After Tristan Peters’ sacrifice fly put Chicago back on top, four consecutive Tigers reached safely in a two-run 10th, capped by Matt Vierling’s blooper just beyond Braden Montgomery’s diving attempt in right.

The Tigers had a series sweep of the previous AL Central leaders, capped in comeback fashion on Father’s Day. And they had Jones, whose Father’s Day are never easy, to thank.