Chavis finds stroke with Spinners

With Double-A Portland on the All-Star break, Michael Chavis returned to the New York-Penn League and rediscovered his form.
Boston's top prospect collected his first home run and three-hit game of the season, doubling twice Monday as Class A Short Season Lowell took down Hudson Valley, 9-6, at LeLacheur Park.

Gameday box score
"When I was in Hartford [with the Sea Dogs], I was lucky enough to have my girlfriend take some video of me," Chavis said. "I talked to the hitting coaches there, my hitting guy at home and watched video. I looked at the swings I was taking there and the swings I did last year.
"I had some pretty good success last year and I want to continue to have that, and that swing works. I haven't had a lot of at-bats in a while, so it's really about getting back in the groove of things. I've been taking only batting practice for so long, you can very easily create some bad habits."
After batting .167 in his first four games of the season with the Spinners, Chavis went hitless over two Eastern League games prior to the hiatus. On Monday night, something seemed to click.
The 22-year-old lined a double to right field in the first inning and clubbed another double to right in the fourth that plated Jarren Duran. Chavis came around to score on a double by Devlin Granberg.
"I made a few mechanical adjustments," he said. "But the biggest thing was just getting back on top of the fastball. I haven't been on time on the fastball lately. Anybody who's ever been late on the fastball will say it's pretty tough to hit when you can't hit the fastball. I was on time on fastballs tonight and that helped free everything up."
The third baseman walked in the fourth before blasting his first long ball over the fence in right-center field in the eighth.
"It was pretty big for me, given everything that's been going on," Chavis said. "The past couple of days, I've really been working on staying process-oriented. Not staying focused on the results, but more on the end goal. I'm just trying to get comfortable for that end goal. At the end of the day, no one's going to be like, 'Hey, he's struggling in Lowell.' So I'm working towards the end of the year. The home run is a little bit of a weight off my back, but it's just a step in the right direction."
The right-handed hitter missed the first 80 games of the season after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone. He began his campaign July 2 with Lowell after spending last season between Portland and Class A Advanced Salem.

"It's tough to prepare for that in-game action, because you can take a lot of BP and a lot of ground balls in practice and do as much as you want, but simulating in-game situations and the excitement of an actual game with the fans, the lights, everything like that, it's so different," Chavis said. "I did everything I could to prepare for at-bats this season, but right now it's all about being process-oriented. Everything I'm working on now will pay off later."
Granberg and No. 20 Red Sox prospect Tyler Esplin drove in two runs apiece.
Yorvin Pantoja (1-0) gave up two runs on four hits and a walk with two strikeouts over four innings.