CINCINNATI – Kids dream about the moment Hao-Yu Lee had Sunday: Game on the line, stepping to the plate and hitting a go-ahead home run.
Lee sort of dreamed about it, too.
“Really it's different,” he said, “because I'm pinch-hitting. When I'm dreaming, I'm always starting. But it's pretty awesome to me: Pinch-hitting and hit a homer, show the manager that even when I'm not starting, I'm always ready to hit.”
For a first home run in the Majors, it was close enough to the dream. And as Lee rounded the bases on his two-run homer with the go-ahead run in the Tigers’ eventual 8-3 win over the Reds on Sunday at Great American Ball Park, the kid in him came out.
He was jumping in the air. He was pumping his fists. He flexed a bit as he rounded first base. And he was running really fast, almost too fast.
“The first thing I thought was: Please don’t catch Gleyber,” said manager A.J. Hinch, since Gleyber Torres was on base and moving notably slower ahead of him. “He was going so fast and with so much intent, and I want him to enjoy it. And I love how much he puts into it. It’s probably one of the first times he’s going to really feel a part of something big, because we were down to up.”
Lee, the Tigers’ No. 6 prospect, has been on the other end. When he made his first Major League camp last year, he talked with Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter about how to handle strikeouts, an adjustment for a hitter with a reputation for controlling the strike zone. He learned how to control his frustrations last season in Triple-A Toledo, helping him deal with the ups and downs of a long season. He was poised to be a key part of Team Chinese Taipei in the World Baseball Classic last month but missed it with an oblique strain that delayed his start to the season at Triple-A Toledo.
Lee got his first call to the big leagues last week as an injury replacement for Zach McKinstry. He entered Sunday batting 3-for-17 with a double, an RBI and six strikeouts, but Hinch stuck with his young right-handed hitter as a platoon starter and pinch-hitter against left-handed pitchers.
Lee got his chance Sunday against Reds reliever Sam Moll. Lee laid off the first-pitch sweeper below the zone, but pounced on the ensuing high fastball on the outer half of the plate. Lee isn’t a free-swinger, but he swings hard, which results in hard hits like the 105.8 mile-per-hour drive towards right-center.
“The first day I struggled a little bit, because my back leg is going down too much,” he said. “So I talked to the hitting coaches. Yesterday I kind of did an adjustment on my back leg. Today the result was really good.”
Once the ball landed in the seats, the celebration was on.
“Not only was it his first homer, but it was a meaningful homer in this game,” said Spencer Torkelson, who was on deck and followed with a homer of his own. “I mean, it was huge. I could tell how fired up he was. It was a special moment.”
It was a funny moment as he neared Torres rounding third base. Third-base coach Joey Cora, who has a well-earned reputation for aggressively waving runners home, slowed Lee up a bit as he slapped his hand
“I'm too happy, so I didn't really focus on if I'm running too fast,” Lee said. “Too happy for this moment.”
Though his first homer came on the road, Lee got the ball back from a fan. When asked what he planned to do with it, he smiled.
"What am I going to do [with it]? Keep it like a baby," he said.