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DETROIT — As the at-bat kept on, with Hao-Yu Lee spoiling pitch after pitch, Max Clark started bantering with hitting coach Michael Brdar.

“We preach quality at-bats,” Clark said as the Tigers were quietly celebrating a rambunctious, 11-7 comeback win against the Colorado Rockies Saturday (Sept. 12) at Comerica Park. “That’s a base hit, a walk, any form of reaching base and any at-bat over seven pitches. So, Lee goes five, six, seven pitches and you can just feel the energy in the dugout pick up. It just brings everybody into the game. He gets to seven pitches and I look at Brdar, like, ‘That’s quality.’

“Then Lee goes eight, nine, 10, 11. I mean, just your normal Hao-Yu Lee backside cannon shot.”

The dugout went bananas as Lee’s 12-pitch, two-out, two-run triple off the wall in right field capped a seven-run eighth inning, taking the Tigers from three down to four up, sending them to their second straight win over the Rockies and their fourth win in five games.

“This is what our team is,” said Clark, who was on base four times with an RBI single, a hustle double, a near-perfect drag bunt single and a walk in that eighth inning. “It’s really fun. There is no quit in our guys. It’s really cool to see us battle through everything this year, with the injuries early, the trade deadline, everything. It’s been a continuous battle with our self and we continue to hold ourselves to a high standard, no matter what.

“It’s fun to watch right now. This team is energized and nothing is impossible.”

The Tigers had come to the dugout after Rockies designated hitter Ezequiel Tovar hit a controversial home run off the base of the foul pole in left to restore a three-run lead.

“Our scoreboard probably doesn’t do the umpires or New York (the video room) any favors,” manager AJ Hinch said. “I sure thought it looked like it caromed off the other way, which would’ve made it foul. But it’s an angled line and there is another line behind the fence from the old wall. I was hoping that they had as good of video in New York as we had.”

Nope. The home run call stood after review.

“We didn’t think much of it,” said rookie Kevin McGonigle, who hit his 17th homer in the third inning. “We were so locked in. We expected to put more runs on the board.”

It had been a crazy game in that regard. The Tigers had 13 hits and created 17 at-bats with runners in scoring position before the eighth. They put the leadoff man on in every inning. Only twice, once on McGonigle’s homer, did they cash that leadoff runner in. They were 4 for 17 with runners in scoring position.

“I don’t remember this year if we’d ever done what we did today,” Hinch said. “Putting the leadoff batter on base every inning and stranding almost multiple runners in every inning. You want a chance to break through with a big hit and it was eluding us. Then it didn’t elude us at all.”

The dam didn’t break in the bottom of the eighth, it was shattered.

The Tigers sent 11 hitters to the plate and collected five hits with three walks.

“We were due for the floodgates to open,” Spencer Torkelson said.

Lee started the rally and ended it, in spectacular fashion. He’d snapped a 0-for-12 skid with an RBI double in the fourth, then he and Gleyber Torres hit back-to-back doubles off reliever Jaden Hill to start the eighth. Riley Greene singled home Torres to make it 7-6.

“I did think he was starting to lose a little bit of control,” Hinch said, explaining why he had kept Lee on the bench for a few games earlier in the week. “He was fatiguing a little bit, trying too hard, trying to make up for the previous at-bat. I sat him for a game or two and he collected himself.”

Lee drew three walks in a game against the Twins on Sept. 9 and that seemed to get him back on track.

“He showed patience,” Hinch said. “Sometimes in the pursuit of hits, you lose your patience. When you are a young player at this level, you want to see the scoreboard change with hits. But that patience allowed him to get into some good counts and get off some good swings.”

With Zach McKinstry running for Greene at first, rookie Eduardo Valencia faked like he was going to bunt, pulled the bat back and slashed a single to right-center. Clark then drew a walk to load the bases and the Rockies brought in closer Jordan Romano.

It wasn’t his day. He took a pitch-count violation before he even threw a pitch. Then he proceeded to walk Torkelson to force in the tying run and then he walked Ben Malgeri to put the Tigers up 8-7.

“I was kind of proud of that at-bat,” said Torkelson. “I didn’t get too antsy. Which is easy to do in that situation. But I stayed within myself.”

Torkelson was talking with rookie Brett Callahan earlier in the day. They were watching highlights on MLB Network. Callahan asked if he’d ever had a home run robbed at the wall. Torkelson said no. Sure enough, in the third inning, left fielder Jake McCarthy went back to the wall in left-center and brought back what would’ve been his 23rd homer.

“Crazy game,” Torkelson said, shaking his head.

After rookie John Peck’s sacrifice fly made it 9-7, Lee came back up with two outs and two on and won his 12-pitch battle with Romano.

“That just fired everyone up,” McGonigle said. “You keep stacking good at-bats like that, good things will happen.”

Hinch held court with some of the rookies before the game. Among the topics was the team’s 20-47 record in games decided by two runs or less.

“I talked to them about small details,” Hinch said. “Little things turn into big things in close games and we’re not performing in close games as well as we’re going to. But you have to live it. You have to experience it. I can tell them the story of the 2024 team that came back against San Diego on Parker Meadows’ grand slam and I will get head nods and maybe they’ll go look it up on their phone. But it doesn’t really stick until you live it.

“I hope this experience for Lee, for Peck, for Max, for Ben, for Kevin, like everything matters. And a day like today will be a place on the calendar these guys can reference when we’re in this spot again.”

BOX SCORE: Tigers 11, Rockies 7

chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com

@cmccosky

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers bury Rockies with seven-run inning, 18-hit attack

Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News

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