Hermosillo hammers trifecta for Bees
It's been a homer-happy month for Michael Hermosillo, but Friday served as new territory.The Angels' No. 27 prospect needed only four innings to record his first career three-homer game as Triple-A Salt Lake pounded El Paso, 12-5, at Southwest University Park. He drove in four runs and has gone deep
It's been a homer-happy month for
The Angels' No. 27 prospect needed only four innings to record his first career three-homer game as Triple-A Salt Lake pounded El Paso, 12-5, at Southwest University Park. He drove in four runs and has gone deep nine times while plating 17 runs in his last 10 games.
Until recently, Hermosillo wasn't known as a home run hitter, despite packing some power. In his first four professional seasons, he totaled nine. But that's changed lately for the 24-year-old, who has 10 long balls in August alone, a stretch that included back-to-back two-homer games and five in a three-game span.
"It's been a collective effort," he said. "I've been around four or five good hitting coaches, not only in our organization but independently on my own. I think we as a whole have come up with a good level of patterns to repeat at the plate.
"Mid-July, I really started to feel like I was getting going, but the home runs weren't showing. Then these last 15 days, there's been a lot of home runs. But there's really nothing behind those -- I'm just trying to hit the ball hard and swing at good pitches."
Gameday box score
It didn't take long for Hermosillo to implement his strategy Friday, as Salt Lake chased Chihuahuas starter
An inning later, the cleanup hitter did it again. With Bour on first, Hermosillo pounced on the first pitch from left-hander
Hermosillo still had one momentous swing left, and what he did with it may have come from some encouragement from a teammate. Batting for the third time in the bottom of the fourth, he again swung at the first pitch, this time from right-hander
"Our catcher,
It was the third three-homer game of the season for Salt Lake, following
"I've been working on driving the ball and increasing exit velocity, so I think there's definitely a correlation," he said. "But I wouldn't say I go out there trying to hit home runs; I just go out there trying to hit the ball hard."
Hermosillo missed the first two months of the season recovering from a sports hernia that he suffered last year. He had surgery last October 31 and did not return until early June. Since rejoining the Bees, he's compiled a .250/.343/.500 slash line.
Parker homered, drove in four runs and fell a triple short of the cycle for Salt Lake, while
For El Paso, Padres No.11 prospect
Katie Woo is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow her on Twitter @katiejwoo.