Tigers rally falls short in 5-4 loss; Lee provides bright spot

Tigers rally falls short in 5-4 loss; Lee provides bright spot

Hao-Yu Lee showed signs of settling in at the major league level, but the Detroit Tigers could not hold a late tie, falling 5-4 on Friday night at Comerica Park.

Lee finished 1-for-4 with an RBI, delivering a run-scoring single in the fourth inning as part of a three-run rally that brought Detroit within one. He also contributed defensively, helping turn a 5-6-3 double play alongside Kevin McGonigle and Spencer Torkelson in the fifth inning. Lee handled multiple chances cleanly at third base, continuing a stretch of more consistent defensive play.

Detroit trailed 4-0 after three innings but responded in the fourth. Wenceel Pérez delivered a two-run single, and Lee followed with his RBI hit to cut the deficit to one. The Tigers tied the game in the fifth when Riley Greene drove in a run on a groundout.

Greene led Detroit offensively, going 2-for-4 with an RBI. Pérez finished with two RBIs, while Torkelson reached base three times, going 1-for-2 with two walks and a run scored. Dillon Dingler added a hit, and Jahmai Jones doubled and scored.

As a team, Detroit went 7-for-34 with four runs, four walks and six strikeouts. The Tigers were 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position and produced two two-out RBIs, but left seven runners on base. After scoring in the fourth and fifth innings, Detroit did not record an extra-base hit the rest of the way.

The early deficit stemmed from continued command issues by Jack Flaherty. The right-hander allowed four runs on five hits over 3.2 innings, walking three and striking out four. All three walks came in the third inning, which led to three runs scoring as Texas extended its lead to 4-0.