Tigers bury Rockies with seven-run inning, 18-hit attack

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Sep 12, 2026

Published in Baseball

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DETROIT — The Tigers just kept coming, kept applying pressure. Going into the bottom of the eighth, they were down 7-4 but they had 13 hits and had created 17 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

It seemed only a matter of time until the dam broke. It didn't so much break as it was shattered.

The Tigers sent 11 hitters to the plate and scored seven runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat the Colorado Rockies for the second straight day, 11-7, on Saturday before a crowd of 32,013 at Comerica Park.

The Tigers have won four of their last five.

Rookie Hao-Yu 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.

The Tigers loaded the bases, still with no outs, and Rockies closer Jordan Romano entered and walked Spencer Torkelson and Ben Malgeri to force home two more runs before rookie John Peck’s sacrifice fly put them up by two.

Lee came up again with two on and two outs and he battled Romano for 12 pitches before clearing the bases with an opposite-field triple to right.

That inning erased what had been a frustrating day for the Tigers.

Things have been a little disjointed for Tigers rookie lefty Andrew Sears lately. He made his first big-league start in Cleveland on Sept. 4 and limited the Guardians to a run in 5 2/3 innings.

After the game he was optioned to Triple-A Toledo. Though, in the interim, he never pitched for the Mud Hens. With Keider Montero heading to paternity leave, he was going to be the replacement.

Eight days later, on Saturday, Montero was in Venezuela with his newborn baby daughter and Sears was toeing the rubber at Comerica Park against the Rockies.

It didn’t go all that well. Sears didn’t make it out of the fifth.

He wasn’t hit overly hard (83.7-mph average exit velocity on 15 balls in play) but his command was spotty. He walked a batter and hit another and pitched too often in hitters’ counts.

The big blow was a three-run home run by Hunter Goodman in the third inning. Sears fell behind and threw three straight four-seam fastballs. Goodman sent the last one, a pitch that was in and off the plate, over the wall in left field.

The Tigers were playing uphill the rest of the day.

After the Tigers cut the Rockies lead to 3-2, Sears hung a two-strike slider to Adael Amador, who poked an RBI double to right field.

Then, after the Tigers tied it in the bottom of the fourth, Sears only got one out in the fifth, leaving runners on the corners.

Veteran right-hander Tyler Kinley, who pitched five seasons for the Rockies, cleaned up the mess, getting a pair of infield pop-ups.

Kinley, though, put the first two on in the sixth, with a walk and a hit batter. The runners moved up a base on a sacrifice bunt by Ezequiel Tovar. Kinley gave way to lefty Drew Sommers, who was greeted by a two-run single by Jake McCarthy.

Tovar’s slicing drive off reliever Beau Brieske clipped the foul pole in left field for his 11th homer, giving the Rockies the three-run spread in the eighth inning.

Rookie Max Clark had himself a day. After homering and creating another run with his wheels in the opener Friday, his speed game was on full display. He slashed a two-out, RBI single to right in the third inning, turned a single to right into a hustle double in the fifth and executed a near-perfect drag bunt between the pitcher and first base for another single in the seventh.

Truth be told, the Tigers were not much bothered by what Rockies starter Tanner Gordon was throwing at them. They collected 10 hits in four innings, including rookie Kevin McGonigle’s 17th home run and three doubles.

That all those hits produced just four runs felt light.

And it was, until the eighth.

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