Mountcastle slugs way to new ground

As Ryan Mountcastle inches ever closer to reaching the big leagues, he's continued to provide a productive bat for Triple-A Norfolk. On Thursday, MLB.com's No. 53 overall prospect showed why he's on the cusp of the next step.
Mountcastle collected his second multi-homer game of the season, going deep twice while driving in four runs to help the Tides to a 9-7 win over the Red Wings at Frontier Field. He's amassed a career-high 19 long balls this season.

On Wednesday, the second-ranked Orioles prospect delivered a two-hit game and then started quickly in the first inning of Thursday's matinee. After walks to Christopher Bostick and Baltimore's No. 15 prospect DJ Stewart to start the game, Mountcastle slugged a hanging curveball, the first offering by right-hander DJ Baxendale, over the center-field fence. 
Gameday box score
After a strikeout in the fourth and a lineout to center in the sixth, the 22-year-old had one last opportunity in the ninth. Soon after Peters crushed a dinger to center, Mountcastle blasted a no-doubt homer to center estimated at 420 feet on a 2-0 pitch by lefty Gabriel Moya.
The 2015 first-round pick surpassed his previous professional best of 18 homers, set in 2017 between Class A Advanced Frederick and Double-A Bowie. His power -- graded at 55 by MLB.com -- has taken a significant step this season, with over 17 percent of his fly balls going over the wall, according to Fangraphs.

Through 93 games this season, Mountcastle has batted .306 (which ranks ninth on the circuit) with 43 extra-base hits and an .850 OPS. A Futures Game selection in 2018, the Florida native was named an International League All-Star this year. 
Norfolk manager Gary Kendall has been pleased to see Mountcastle become an enormous threat in the batters' box. 

"He has just been consistent," Kendall told MiLB.com on July 22. "When you get to the halfway point of the season and are 22, that's what you like to see. He hits in the middle of the lineup and has handled that. For this league, I don't know how many guys are 22."
While he might have slowed down a touch since a torrid May in which he posted an .889 OPS, the infielder has compiled a .296/.318/.543 slash line with four long balls this month. 
"I feel like I've been holding my own," Mountcastle told MiLB.com earlier this week. "I've done my part, but there's a lot of season left."
After 490 Minor League games, the 6-foot-3, 195-pounder has amassed 64 homers and a .790 OPS.