51s' Taijeron belts three home runs

Two-homer games started as a trickle for Travis Taijeron. There was one for Class A Savannah in 2012, then another for Class A Advanced St. Lucie in 2013. A year later, he recorded one more for Double-A Binghamton. With four already to his credit this season, it stood to reason a career night was on the way. It came Friday.

Taijeron blasted three homers for the first time in his career, going yard in each of his first three at-bats and driving in four runs to lead Triple-A Las Vegas to an 8-3 victory over Omaha at Cashman Field.

"I was feeling pretty good," Taijeron said. "I just felt focused in the zone every single at-bat. My first at-bat, I hit a changeup out. My second one, I had to battle a little bit, got to 3-2, and he threw me another changeup inside and I hit that one. My third one was a fastball away, and I went opposite field."

Three homers in three at-bats would be impressive enough. Taijeron actually started his power surge on Thursday night, going yard in his next-to-last at-bat. The 26-year-old outfielder kicked off his Friday showing with a two-run blast to left-center in the second inning. He went to left-center again for a solo shot in the fourth and followed with another solo homer to right in the fifth.

"I really have no explanation for it," he said. "I just went up and concentrated and tried to battle and make sure I don't cheat myself. I went up there trying to hit balls as hard as I can every single at-bat. I put it together tonight, I guess."

The three-homer game was the fourth in the Pacific Coast League this season and the first by a member of the 51s since Blue Jays farmhand Ricardo Nanita accomplished the feat on Aug. 18, 2012. Taijeron was the first Mets player to hit three in a game for Las Vegas since the club's affiliation change.

The three-hit night was Taijeron's first since May 16 at Tacoma, a game in which he also homered. Although he's batting .241 this month, his .964 OPS in August is his second-best of any month this season. Taijeron is hitting at a .276/.382/.931 clip over his last nine games.

"August in the Minor Leagues is a tough month, for sure," the 2-11 18th-round Draft pick said. "I'm just going out there, trying to be as relaxed as possible and play as hard as I can, do the best I can every single day. When I have my opportunities, I've got to take advantage of them."

There isn't much of a late-summer swoon in any of Taijeron's numbers. Prior to the Triple-A All-Star break, the California native batted .277/.390/.525 with 15 homers and 44 RBIs in 242 at-bats. Since, he's batted .286/.427/.619 with eight homers and 21 RBIs in 105 at-bats.

"I'm trying to keep it as even as possible," he said. "Those are the guys who make it to the Hall of Fame, the easy guys, stay on the same plane every single year, have the same mindset going into it day by day. I see a lot of that in big league players, and that's the next step for me. All I can do is try to do that the best I can."

The rest of the 51s followed suit as they totaled 11 hits, including a solo shot from Brandon Allen. Darrell Ceciliani went 3-for-4 with two RBIs.

"These are the best nights," Taijeron said. "It's always fun and games when you're doing this. We honestly have a very fun team, so when we get our hits and all that, it turns into an electric dugout. Things start happening and we start rolling."

Darin Gorski (9-8) allowed three runs on six hits and three walks with three strikeouts over six innings.

Omaha starter J.C. Sulbaran (2-1) was reached for eight runs on 10 hits, including four homers, in 4 1/3 frames. He walked two and fanned three.