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 ran 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.”
