Almonte slugs way to career-high six RBIs

Marcos Almonte put an exclamation point on his first two weeks in the Midwest League.
The Houston outfield prospect compiled a career-high six RBIs with a grand slam and a two-run homer Thursday to help Class A Quad Cities rout Fort Wayne, 11-3, at Modern Woodmen Park.

Almonte put the River Bandits on the board with his two-run blast to right field in the fourth inning off the first pitch he saw from TinCaps starter Jerry Keel.
"He just looked like he was in the zone and hunting a particular pitch," Quad Cities skipper Russ Steinhorn said. "He got it and didn't leave anything back."
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The center fielder faced Keel (1-2) again an inning later with the bases loaded. This time he worked the count to 2-1 against the Fort Wayne lefty before crushing an elevated fastball over the wall in left-center.
"I think he knew it off the bat," Steinhorn said. "It was hit pretty well. I think we got it at 105 [mph] off the bat on the radar. I think it was a pretty good feeling for him. The first one he wasn't sure if he got it out, but the grand slam I think he knew he got all of it."

Almonte grounded out to third in the second and sixth. The 21-year-old notched his first multi-homer game in the Minor Leagues and surpassed his previous career high of four RBIs set in 2014 in the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League.
Steinhorn took special note of the fact that both homers came with two outs.
"I think that was the most impressive, and just trying to show him that each at-bat matters and he can change the game with one swing at any time," the manager said. "So being locked in like that is very key to his development."
Since he joined Quad Cities from extended spring training on April 17, Almonte's teammates have marveled at his offensive production. The native of the Dominican Republic is batting .348 with five homers and 16 RBIs in 12 games.
"They saw it in Spring Training. He was on the cusp of making [the team]," Steinhorn said. "We knew he was going to be one of the first guys out. He stuck to his plan and he kept working hard for a few weeks.
"They've been giving him a pretty rough time, just joking around with him because his first day he was up here, he hit a homer. Then he's just been putting together a lot of quality at-bats and making the most of his opportunity since."

River Bandits starter Brett Adcock (1-0) cruised to his first win of the season. The lefty allowed a run on four hits and a walk and struck out a career-best 11 batters over six innings.

"It was his best performance so far of the year," Steinhorn said. "He definitely set the tone. He got a lot of strikeouts early in counts and was able to put away hitters early, which was definitely his strength. It's something that he's learned over the course of his first couple starts being here."
Alexander De Goti lofted a two-run homer while Rodrigo Ayarza added three hits and scored twice for Quad Cities.
Keel was roughed up for eight runs on six hits and four walk over 4 2/3 frames.