Munoz homers twice on career night

Arizona infielder Joe Munoz has been working hard in the batting cage to snap out of his funk at the plate. With a clear head and better mechanics, Munoz got himself back on track with a career night at a ballpark he's starting to really enjoy hitting in.

Munoz went 4-for-4 with two homers, five RBIs and four runs scored in the Class A Kane County Cougars' 9-3 win over the host Fort Wayne TinCaps at Parkview Field on Thursday.

"I think I had a pretty good game," he said. "Felt pretty good at the plate, seeing the ball pretty well. My BP wasn't the best, but I've been working with our hitting instructor [Vince Harrison]. He's been tweaking my stance and helping me watch the ball a little bit longer.

"[Before,] I was just trying to do too much. Now I'm getting my swing back where it needs to be. The last round [of batting practice], I stopped thinking about what I needed to do. I just saw the ball and hit the ball."

His four hits matched his career high, achieved three times and most recently when he tied a Midwest League record with four doubles for South Bend in the same ballpark against Fort Wayne last May 4.

His five RBIs tied a career high -- he plated five for the Silver Hawks against Bowling Green last July 31 -- and Thursday's performance marked the second multi-homer game of his career. The only other time he left the yard twice was on July 2, 2012, in a game for the D-backs' Rookie-level Arizona League affiliate against the Brewers.

"There must be something about the ballpark," Munoz said. "I felt really good. I liked it. But I couldn't get up there so many times without everybody else getting hits."

It was the 21-year-old's seventh multi-hit game of the season and the first in five contests. It also represented his first homer since May 17, while his five RBIs were more than he had recorded in his previous 26 appearances combined.

Munoz, who lifted his average to .256 in the win, said things finally started to click when pregame batting practice was coming to a close.

The Cougars always take five rounds of BP, with every hitter taking five swings in each round representing a different in-game situation, from hitting with two strikes to hitting with the infield in. During the fifth round -- a situation in which the bases are loaded and his team is down by a fictitious run -- when he stopped thinking about his stance and his stride and just tried to hit the ball hard in the air.

That mentality carried over into the actual game, where he found himself batting with actual runners on base.

Hitting sixth and playing third, Munoz singled to left field in the second inning, walked and scored in the fourth and clubbed a three-run homer to left with two outs in the fifth. He added a two-run homer to left-center with two outs in the seventh before beating out a ninth-inning infield single to shortstop in his final at-bat.

"It was a full count or 2-2," Munoz said of his first homer. "[Starter Michael Kelly] threw a couple fastballs up that I fouled away kinda up, so I figured if he saw me swinging up, he would come soft down. I told myself if it's a fastball, I'll go the other way, but if he hangs something, I'll stick with it and kinda stay back on it.

"[Second homer] was a 3-2 pitch. I thought it was a double because where I hit it. It hit the railing off the top and I heard a ding. Got to second base and stopped and then they told me. [T.J. Weir] was mixing it in, hard, soft, hard, soft, so I just wanted to stay back and long as I could."

Selected in the second round of the 2012 Draft out of Los Altos High School, Munoz started the year 4-for-23 with 10 strikeouts. He raised his average briefly above .300 in mid-May, but then went 13-for-72 (.181) with 12 hitless games in his next 23 appearances before Thursday.

"I've been really anxious up there, all over the place," the California native said. "I just had to clear my mind. It's pretty tough. I just have to get my mind out of the mechanical side of things. My hitting coach thought it was more of a mind-set thing and I thought it was that too. I thought they would try to blow it by me and I was rushing and pulling off.

"Tonight was a stepping stone and I was a little more relaxed. I realized the more relaxed I am, the better my at-bats have been and the better my swing has been. I wasn't trying to do too much. They left me two sliders tonight [that I hit for home runs] that a couple days ago I might have whiffed right through. I have to remember to keep going up there with a blank mind."

Now in his fourth year of pro ball, Munoz was ranked as high as No. 14 among D-backs prospects entering the 2013 season. He dropped to No. 17 last year and fell outside the Top 30 for 2015 after hitting .248 with nine homers and 46 RBIs in 85 games between two levels.

Kane County starter Markus Solbach (6-2) allowed three runs on six hits and a walk while striking out two batters over six innings.

Fort Wayne starter Michael Kelly (2-1) yielded seven runs on 10 hits and a walk over 4 2/3 innings. Right fielder Franmil Reyes was 3-for-4 with a homer, a double and three RBIs.