Chapman drills two homers for Sounds

A year after clubbing 36 homers, Matt Chapman finally got on the board in 2017.
The A's No. 4 prospect went deep twice and drove in three runs on Tuesday, powering Triple-A Nashville to an 11-0 romp over Round Rock at Dell Diamond.

Chapman lofted a two-run homer in his first at-bat, sending an 0-1 pitch from Express starter Jose Valdespina over the left-center field fence. His first long ball of the season gave the Sounds an early 2-0 advantage.
"He threw me a first-pitch slider," MLB.com's No. 93 overall prospect said. "They've been throwing me a lot of off-speed pitches early. He threw me the same pitch and, luckily, I put a good swing on it."
Box score
Chapman struck out in the third, walked in the fifth and lined to shortstop in the sixth while Nashville built a 10-0 lead. By the time he came to the plate for his final at-bat in the ninth, Round Rock had turned to reserve catcher Patrick Cantwell on the mound.

The 24-year-old third baseman watched Cantwell use a handful of eephus pitches to strike out Chris Parmelee but pinned his hopes on getting an early fastball from the 27-year-old right-hander.
"I saw that he was trying to mess guys up with timing and he was throwing some eephus pitches and trying to rush guys," he said. "So I was trying to look to swing early and hopefully, he threw a fastball and not one of those really slow pitches."
Chapman got what he was looking for on the first pitch and crushed a mid-80's fastball over the wall in left. The blast capped his seventh career multi-homer game and first since he clubbed three last Sept. 3 against New Orleans.

Since missing a large portion of the season's first month due to a left wrist injury, Chapman had gotten off to a slow start in his second Pacific Coast League stint. The 2014 first-round pick was 3-for-30 (.100) in his first eight games, with no extra-base hits.
"It's just kind of the way baseball goes," Chapman said. "It's definitely a tough game. You can't really dwell too much on the bad games or get too high on the good games. I've been working with the coaches, just trying to make a few small adjustments to my swing to just stay short and try to have some more success."
The Cal State Fullerton product said he could feel his rhythm starting to come back Tuesday.
"It always feels good to have success," he said. "Definitely, when you drive some balls it will make you feel good, but it just feels nice to have your swing feel good and be able to know where your barrel is and make some consistent contact."
A's No. 20 prospect Renato Núñez also went yard for the Sounds, extending his homer streak to three games. He leads the team with six roundtrippers.

"He's been swinging the bat really well, along with a couple other guys on our team," Chapman said. "He's got some power in that bat, and it's fun to watch."

Joey Wendle, the A's No. 21 prospect, also went yard on a 3-for-5 night.
Michael Brady (1-1) got the win after allowing one hit and one walk while fanning three over three innings in relief of starter Raul Alcantara, who struck out one in three one-hit frames.
Valdespina (1-1) was roughed up for seven runs on nine hits and a walk and struck out two over 2 2/3 frames.