Drillers' Scavuzzo goes yard three times

Double-A Tulsa has ridden some hot bats in the last week, but on Wednesday, it was time for someone new to step up.
Dodgers outfield prospect Jacob Scavuzzo homered three times, knocking in four runs to fuel the visiting Drillers' 10-4 win over Springfield on Wednesday afternoon.

"This is the first time I've ever homered three times in one game, and the feeling was just incredible," Scavuzzo said. "After I hit the first one, I knew it was going to be a good day. It was an early game and I felt like my body was moving the way I wanted it to. I clipped the first one pretty good. The wind was blowing out a little bit, and it gave me even more confidence to keep trying to put some more out."
The 23-year-old went deep in the fourth, seventh and ninth innings. He lofted a solo shot to left field off Cardinals starter Zac Gallen before tagging Pedro Echemendia with a two-run drive over the wall in left-center. Scavuzzo finished his day with another shot to left-center off Blake McKnight -- his ninth home run of the year
Gameday box score
"After the second one, I was like, 'Wow this is crazy, I don't normally hit two home runs in a game,'" Scavuzzo said. "The funny thing is I was watching the Dodgers game last night and saw how [Corey] Seager had three homers. After the second, I had it in the back of my head that if Seager can hit three, I'm going to try and hit a third one.
"I told hitting coach [Terrmel Sledge], 'I think I'm going to get this third one, I'm going to try for it,' and that's when I hit it. I was just overwhelmed with joy, one of the best games I've ever been a part of in baseball."
The big day came after Dodgers No. 21 prospectEdwin Ríos, who ranks second in the Texas League in homers with 14, went deep in consecutive games and two days after Drillers infielder Jose Miguel Fernandez was voted the league's Player of the Week after hitting .538 with 14 hits and eight RBIs.

'We have a pretty solid team this year, a little older than last year's with [Cody] Bellinger, [Alex Verdugo] and [Willie Calhoun], but these guys can still hit," Scavuzzo said. "We're a very streaky team, it seems like when we're winning or losing, they come in bunches."
Scavuzzo was the Dodgers' 21st-round pick in the 2012 Draft out of Villa Park High School in California. He had six long balls in his first 51 games before turning in his second multi-homer effort of the year.
The 6-foot-4, 185-pound outfielder hit a career-high 18 dingers and posted an .837 OPS across two levels in 2015 before struggling in 2016, going yard 10 times with a .715 OPS in 112 games with Tulsa. Scavuzzo hit .171 with two home runs in April, but has batted .243/.294/.432 in 163 plate appearances since the start of May.

"Last year, I was playing through some injuries," Scavuzzo said. "I don't want to discredit myself, but this year, I just feel so much healthier and stronger. I did make a little mechanical switch, me and [Sledge] have been working continuously on being on time and being in position to hit, which are keys for me being a bigger guy. I can't have too many parts moving at once or think too much at the plate. We just simplified it and I got myself back on time, getting off good swings every at-bat."
Drillers righty Scott Barlow (5-3) was the story of the game for the first five innings, though -- the 2016 Texas League All-Star matched a career high with 10 strikeouts and held the Cardinals to a pair of hits without a walk. The 2011 sixth-round pick has whiffed 10 batters in a game twice in his last six starts and was coming off a nine-K effort on June 16.
Gallen (1-2) allowed four runs on eight hits and a walk over six frames, while Bruce Caldwell had two doubles and drove in two runs for the Cardinals.