Rattlers' Harrison hits two more homers

Monte Harrison left Spring Training with a goal to execute a new, refined approach designed to get him to sit on fastballs, adjust to off-speed pitches and become more defensive in two-strike counts. He got away from that strategy early in the season but has picked it back up and pulled out of a long slump.

"With my two-strike approach, I tell myself to fight off pitches until I get what I want. This is something I've been working on since Spring Training, and I've been trying to hone in on it," Harrison said. "Lately, it's been helping me, so I'm definitely sticking with it: just put the ball in play and good things happen.

"I remember at the beginning of the year, I went away from it and I had to go back to it. Everything's not going to be perfect and glamorous as soon as you start [a new strategy]."

The Brewers' No. 15 prospect drove in a career-high five runs in his second two-homer in less than a week, powering Class A Wisconsin to an 18-9 thumping of Kane County on Friday night at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark. He went 3-for-5 with a grand slam to push his batting average over .200 for the first time since April 28.

"I've been seeing the ball pretty well in the last several games. I try not to do too much and just square the ball up and good things will happen," Harrison said. "I just trusted myself, knowing that [I'm going to break out] sooner or later. I just trusted the process, not trying to get caught up in all the numbers. Everyone's been hooting and hollering about, 'Oh, you've got to do this and you've got to do that,' instead of just focusing on learning the game and learning about yourself and your swing. Everything's starting to click for me."

Harrison started his night with a single in the second inning and scored in the Timber Rattlers' seven-run outburst. In the third, he smacked a two-out solo homer to right field.

The 20-year-old outfielder reached on a throwing error and advanced to third to lead off the fifth, then scored again on Max McDowell's sacrifice fly. After striking out in the seventh, he capped his two-homer night with a grand slam in the eighth.

"They were trying to get me to chase and go for the off-speed pitches," said Harrison, who hit a pair of solo homers on Saturday. "When you get yourself in a good hitting position, you see that and you recognize it, so you try not to chase it.

"[The grand slam] was on a 1-2 count. He went fastball-in and fastball-in and then a fastball away and then he threw a slider [that I got hold of]."

The Missouri native's batting average fell below .200 on April 28 and he scuffled through May, going 14-for-85 (.165) with a homer and 12 RBIs in 24 games. He's 10-for-30 (.333) with four homers and seven RBIs in eight games in June since changing his strategy at the dish.

"At the beginning of the year, they were throwing me a lot of off-speed," Harrison said. "My coaches really preached being on time for the fastball. When you're on time for the fastball, you can hit any pitch you want to hit once you get into a comfortable hitting position. That's what I've been doing lately, just getting on time for the fastball and sitting back on the off-speed, just trying to hit the ball back up the middle.

"I still have a lot of strides to make in order to get to the big leagues and be where I really want to be, and I've just been trying to grow somehow every day as a baseball player. [Pitchers] have to do a lot now to get me out of my strategy."

Luis Aviles matched Harrison with a 3-for-5 night, homering, driving in three runs scoring twice for Wisconsin.

Grant Heyman went 3-for-5 with a homer and tied a career high with five RBIs for Kane County.

Wisconsin reliever Drake Owenby (3-1) got the win, registering a career-high 11 strikeouts while giving up an unearned run on three hits and three walks in five innings.