Oh Seung-hwan of the St. Louis Cardinals was touched for his first home run of the spring Thursday against the Detroit Tigers.
The South Korean reliever allowed a run on three hits in 1 1/3 innings as the Tigers defeated the Cardinals 5-4 at Joker Merchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida.
Oh, working on a string of 4 1/3 shutout innings, took over from starter Carlos Martinez with two outs in third and retired Jarrod Saltalamacchia on a groundout.
Then after getting one out in the fourth, the South Korean right-hander served up a solo shot to Nate Schierholtz, who drilled a 1-2 offering over the right field.
It was the first hit given up by Oh in his first U.S. spring.
Oh then allowed back-to-back singles to Mike Aviles and Andrew Romine. He worked himself out of the jam by striking out Anthony Gose and getting Justin Upton to ground out to first.
Miguel Socolovich relieved Oh to start the fifth, after the Korean tossed 30 pitches. Oh now has a 1.59 ERA after 5 2/3 innings.
The all-time leader in saves in the Korea Baseball Organization will serve as a setup man for All-Star closer Trevor Rosenthal.
Elsewhere in preseason, Lee Dae-ho of the Seattle Mariners doubled for a second consecutive game.
Batting cleanup and playing first base, Lee went 1-for-3 against the Oakland Athletics at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Arizona.
His lone hit was a double off John Axford with one out in the sixth.
Lee, who signed a minor league deal with Seattle and had an invitation to spring training, is batting .292 (7-for-24) this spring with a home run and four RBIs. The right-handed slugger -- former KBO regular season MVP and Japan Series MVP -- is in a battle with Jesus Montero for the backup first base job behind left-handed hitting Adam Lind.
The M's and the A's ended in an 11-11 tie after a slugfest. The Mariners erased a 9-3 deficit with an eight-run top ninth, but the Athletics answered back with two runs in the bottom ninth.
Also in Arizona, Choi Ji-man of the Los Angeles Angels went 1-for-5 with a steal while playing two positions on defense, as the Halos and the Colorado Rockies ended in a 4-4 tie at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in Scottsdale.
Choi started the game in left field and moved to first base in the sixth.
Choi hit a one-out single in the third and stole second, his first swipe of the spring. He came around to score on Jefry Marte's double.
Choi is batting .237. He was picked by the Angels in the Rule 5 Draft and is hoping to make his big league debut this year. (Yonhap)
