Shrimp's Garrett posts first five-hit night
Stone Garrett had a "jumbo" night for Double-A Jacksonville. The Marlins prospect collected a career-high five hits, including a homer and a double, driving in four runs and scoring four times to lead the Jumbo Shrimp to a 15-3 romp over Chattanooga on Friday at AT&T Field.
The Marlins prospect collected a career-high five hits, including a homer and a double, driving in four runs and scoring four times to lead the Jumbo Shrimp to a 15-3 romp over Chattanooga on Friday at AT&T Field.
Garrett ripped his 11th double of the season to right field in the second inning to drive in Marlins' No. 23 prospect
Gameday box score
"It was 1-2, I believe, so I was trying to put the ball in play, let it get deep, I guess you can say, and got a fastball middle in and drove it to right-center for the double," the six-year Minor League veteran said. "That was nice."
After singling to left in the fourth, Garrett contributed a pair of singles in the sixth as the Shrimp put eight runs on the board to blow the game open.
"I was trying to go the other way," he said. "React in -- that has been my approach for the past couple of weeks."
Garrett flied to center in the eighth but finished with a bang, smacking a two-run long ball over the left-field wall after a nine-pitch at-bat against infielder
The first two pitches took almost everyone by surprise.
"I was going to take a pitch and he threw me a fastball and then threw a curveball out of nowhere," Garrett said. "The catcher wasn't expecting it and I wasn't expecting it. I don't think anybody was."
That put the right-handed hitter in a precarious position. Down, 0-2, Garrett wanted nothing more than to not go down with a "K."
"I didn't want to strike out to a position player, so I was just trying not to strike out," the Texas native said. "I fouled off a couple of balls that didn't get caught in foul territory. I then got a fastball, I think it was, and put a pretty good swing on it."
The hit saved him from the grief that likely would have been waiting for him when he got back to the dugout.
"I would have been the only one that struck out, so probably a lot [of grief]," Garrett said.
With his fifth straight multi-hit game, the 2014 eighth-round pick raised his average 12 points to .240. He has eight dingers, four triples, 40 RBIs, 13 stolen bases and 41 runs scored in 84 games. His previous high for hits in a game was four, achieved four times, most recently on on July 29, 2017 for Class A Advanced Jupiter.
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Brian Stultz is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @brianjstultz.