Gassaway goes off at the dish for Keys
Randolph Gassaway watched his batting average fall below .295 for the first time in more than a month on June 16 after a 4-for-24 stretch. He's done nothing but hit ever since.The Orioles' No. 23 prospect went 3-for-3 with two walks on Wednesday, reaching base five times and driving in
Randolph Gassaway watched his batting average fall below .295 for the first time in more than a month on June 16 after a 4-for-24 stretch. He's done nothing but hit ever since.
The Orioles' No. 23 prospect went 3-for-3 with two walks on Wednesday, reaching base five times and driving in a career-best five runs in Class A Advanced Frederick's 10-4 win over visiting Wilmington. He hit a grand slam to help the Keys pull away late and has reached safely in nine straight plate appearances.
Gameday box score
"Just getting a good pitch to hit and making sure I didn't miss it," Gassaway said. "In a couple at-bats, the pitchers got behind and I shortened my zone a bit to get something good to hit and drive it."
Gassaway got the Keys on the board in the first inning with a single to center, scoring Orioles No. 4 prospect Ryan Mountcastle, who singled and stole his sixth base of the season. Gassaway walked on a full count in the third and scored with Jay Gonzalez on Shane Hoelscher's single to center to give Frederick a 3-1 lead.
Facing Blue Rocks starter Jared Ruxer again in the fifth, Gassaway singled to center, but Ademar Rifaela was thrown out trying to take third to end the inning. The 22-year-old outfielder ran the count full against left-hander Luis Rico in the seventh before drawing another walk, the third time this season he's drawn multiple walks in a game.
"They threw a couple strikes I didn't like, so I spit on those and waited for them to put it where I wanted," said Gassaway, who's drawn a career-high 21 free passes in 72 games. "When I'm patient at the plate, a lot of good things happen, and I'm trying to implent that more to let the guys behind me get the RBIs; me taking a couple pitches will help a lot."
A 2013 16th-round pick, Gassaway ran the count full again in the eighth, this time with the bases loaded, before unloading on the sixth pitch he saw from Rico and depositing it in the left field bleachers for his first career grand slam and a 10-4 cushion. The long ball was his third of the season and first since April 19.
"I was looking for something out over the plate and knew he was a lefty with a little two-seam and changeup," Gassaway said. "I knew he was going to mix in and out, and he tried to trick me with that changeup but kept missing with his pitches and finally had to come over the plate because he didn't want to walk me. He left it over the plate and I put a good swing on it."
Wednesday marked the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Georgia native's second straight three-hit game and fourth of the season. It also was his third consecutive multi-hit contest, matching his longest stretch of the season, as Gassaway extended his season-best hitting streak to nine games.
"I've just been feeling good. My work in the cage has been cleaner and I'm just executing certain things before the game," he said. "In the game, I'm executing what I've been doing [before the game] and focusing on my work."
Gassaway spent nine games with Double-A Bowie toward the end of May, hitting .185/.313/.185 in 32 plate appearances. After posting a .340/.384/.535 slash line in 2015 with Class A Short Season Aberdeen and Class A Delmarva in 2016 and hitting .312/.359/.414 in 63 games with the Keys this season, the promotion served as a good learning experience he said.
"That's a different level. It's a big jump and business is taken a lot more seriously," Gassaway said. "Your routine day in and day out is always for a reason -- you have to execute and focus more there.
"I just wanted to soak in as much as I could and get better every single day. Some people get caught up with staying the same, and I'm never OK with where I'm at. I just want to get better every single day -- at the plate, in the field and in the clubhouse."
Hoelscher added three hits and two RBIs for Frederick, while Mountcastle had two hits and scored twice and Armando Araiza went 2-for-3 with a solo homer.
Chris Tripodi is an editor for MiLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @christripodi.
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