Stripers' Riley continues power surge

Make a mistake on a pitch to Austin Riley right now and just know you'll never see that baseball again.
The Braves' fifth-ranked prospect -- a 16-game longball drought and sub-.200 average behind him -- homered in his third straight game Saturday as Triple-A Gwinnett cruised past Toledo, 16-3, at Coolray Field for a sixth consecutive win. He added a double for his fourth multi-hit effort of the week, and has reached base safely in each of his last 14 contests.

"The first 10 or 12 games, I was hitting balls hard," Riley said. "I really was. Just balls weren't falling. The bad games really turned into worse games … and it was just kind of a tumble effect. I think balls are starting to fall now and the swing is feeling better. I'm seeing pitches well."
The latest proof of Riley's turnaround came in the third inning. With Rafael Ortega and Andrés Blanco aboard following a walk and a hit batter, the 22-year-old first baseman recognized that Toledo starter and Tigers No. 6 prospectBeau Burrows didn't have the best command of his fastball. He took a slider for ball one and figured Burrows would throw another. He thought correctly and turned the hanging pitch into a highlight.
"He left it over the plate," Riley said, "and I was able to put a nice swing on it."
Riley's 425-foot blast landed well beyond the left-field wall, tying the game at 3-3. It was exactly what the Braves organization has come to expect from MLB.com's No. 35 overall prospect since taking him with the 41st pick in the 2015 Draft. Riley hit 12 dingers in 60 games during his first taste of the pros, then blasted 20 each of the next two seasons. Last year, in 408 at-bats between Double-A Mississippi, Gwinnett and a brief rehab stint in the Gulf Coast League, he still managed 19 homers.
After totaling two roundtrippers in his first 19 games this year, Riley is at it again. He's homered in each of the Stripers' last three contests and is 6-for-12 in that span. Since April 18, the Mississippi high school product is 12-for-33 (.364) with seven extra-base hits to get his average up to .253.
Gameday box score
The key to Riley's current tear, he said, has been pitch recognition and patience at the plate. He's tried to adhere to the lessons of Gwinnett hitting coach Bobby Magallanes, who preaches not to "break posture." Leaning or reaching to hit a pitch, Riley has learned, rarely results in the kind of solid contact produced by a balanced batter. So he must follow a plan that waits for mistakes instead of creating them.
"If I can't do damage without breaking posture," Riley said, "then I'm not swinging."
It's a mind-set that could help eliminate what Riley calls his "biggest hole" -- strikeouts. In 75 games with Gwinnett last year, Riley struck out in just over 29% of his plate appearances. Shaving a few percentage points off of that -- as he has so far in 2019, with 20 strikeouts in 95 plate appearances, good for a 21% rate -- will "do dividends," Riley said. Over the last week, he hasn't struck out more than once in a game. The rest of his stats show what that can lead to.

"If I could figure that out," he said, "I'll be a complete player and be able to help the big league team."
It wasn't only Riley who produced on Saturday. Gwinnett scored in every inning after the second, and the 16 runs were its highest total since a 16-2 rout of Charlotte on Aug. 20, 2014. The Stripers had just as many hits, seven of which were with runners in scoring position. Pedro Florimón knocked in three runs and Sean Kazmar Jr. tallied four RBIs.
Ben Rowen (1-0) picked up the win after throwing 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. He allowed three hits and a walk while striking out two.
Burrows surrendered eight runs on eight hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out six but walked four and allowed three homers.