TinCaps' Merrill rediscovering power, consistency

Jackson Merrill is starting to find the fences with regularity. And along with the power, he's finding some consistency as well.

MLB Pipeline's No. 14 overall prospect went yard for the second day in a row for High-A Fort Wayne, going 3-for-4 with a double, a walk and three RBIs in an 8-6 loss to Dayton.

Merrill pulled his sixth homer of the season to right field off right-handed Reds prospect Carson Rudd in the bottom of the first inning. The two-run tater got the TinCaps on the board first, but Merrill had his eyes set on something bigger.

“I really wasn’t thinking about the homer in that situation,” he said. “It was cool in the moment – don’t get me wrong – I was hyped. But there was a lot of game left to play. So I was really focused on going out and playing defense and trying to score more runs for the team.”

In his next at-bat off Rudd the following inning, the top Padres prospect singled to the opposite field. Against righty reliever John Murphy in fourth, Merrill drove in two with a line-drive double (his 10th of the season) to left.

Although the 27th pick in the 2021 Draft came into the game with a slash line of .258/.296/.399, Merrill has shown some encouraging signs of late. He drove in three runs during Wednesday's doubleheader against the Dragons, homering in the first game of the double dip.

“I’ve kind of just been more patient,” Merrill said. “I feel like early this season, I was getting myself out a lot. So kind of being more patient, getting my own pitch to hit, that’s really it. Stay left-center and pull the breaking ball.”

He certainly seems to have found the recipe for success against Dayton. In eight games against the Dragons this year, Merrill has batted .371 with nine RBIs and nine runs scored.

Thursday's three hits matched his season high, and it was the second time within a week that the 20-year-old posted a three-hit game. Merrill went 3-for-6 with two RBIs and two runs at Quad Cities last Friday. Putting runs on the board are as important to him as multi-hit games.

“I don’t think too much of it, I just think it’s something normal that I should be doing,” Merrill said. “Getting multi-hit games when I can, and also being more patient against their better arms. That’s kind of helping me. So it’s always nice to get a three-hit game, but at the same time, I should probably be doing this more often.”