The excitement in Elio Sarmiento's voice burst through the phone with the kind of force his Bakersfield teammates used to drive five homers out of Sam Lynn Ballpark. "We went crazy," he said with a laugh. The Blaze totaled 24 runs on 23 hits Saturday night. They scored runs in every inning but the eighth. Every hitter who stepped to the plate scored at least once in a 24-3 dismantling of the Lancaster JetHawks. Sarmiento led the way. The 23-year-old left fielder went 5-for-6 with four RBIs and six runs scored. He needed only a triple to finish off the cycle. "It feels great," said Sarmiento, who was originally signed by San Francisco as a non-drafted free agent in 2004. "It feels like it should be most of the time like that. Hitting is tough enough to get one or two base hits a day. Having a day like this with five is amazing. It's pretty awesome. It feels really, really good." He fell a run shy of tying the California League record, set in 1947 by Pat Ambrose and Dave Malberg, both of whom scored seven times in the same game for Fresno. As a team, the Blaze hit five homers, including four three-run shots, and boasted five players with at least three RBIs. But Sarmiento didn't see his big day coming right away. In his first at-bat, he hit the ball right at the JetHawks pitcher and reached on a fielder's choice. He knew he hit the ball well but was frustrated with the result. The Venezuela native drove in a run with a double in the second, then singled in the third, fifth and sixth innings. With those four hits alone, he set a career high, then continued to build on his performance with a three-run homer in the seventh. "It was kind of unbelievable," admitted Sarmiento, who was picked up by the Rangers in the Minor League phase of last year's Rule 5 Draft. "When we got to the fourth or fifth innings, we were like, 'Man, this is going to take a long time.' Everything kept going in our favor. Every single hit found a hole to make it through. "I felt kind of bad for those guys out there because I've been in loses like that before and it feels really bad when you're getting beat like that." Not known for his power, the homer was a bonus. "Of course, when I hit my homer I felt a lot more happy because I'm not the big power guy," he said with another laugh. In 55 games with Bakersfield, Sarmiento is having a career year, hitting .327 with two homers, 11 doubles and 23 RBIs. But Saturday night is a moment he'll always remember. "It gives me a lot of confidence about myself, what I can do and what I should be able to do in the future," he said. Mason Kelley is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs. |
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