Confidence keys Alford's first walk-off hit

After Anthony Alford delivered his first career walk-off hit, he was thrilled but also confused.

"I was really excited. I didn't know if I should stop running, I didn't know if I should keep running, I didn't know if I should stay on the base," he said. "Everyone was celebrating, so it felt really good."

The double capped a four-hit day for the Blue Jays' third-ranked prospect and gave Class A Advanced Dunedin a 7-6 victory over Brevard County on Sunday at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium.

"I felt really good. I just made some adjustments over the past two days and I just tried to relax a little bit," Alford said. "It was fun. We all had a great game, the guys, we all played together. There was a lot of life in the dugout.

"Just shortening [everything] down, slowing my movement down, trying to slow the ball down and just commit to my approach."

With those adjustments, Alford broke out of a 10-for-53 slump in a big way. The 21-year-old center fielder got things started with a leadoff triple in the first and scored moments later on Blue Jays No. 12 prospect J.D. Davis' first Florida State League homer.

"When I hit it, it was pretty close to being fair or foul. When [the umpire] called it fair, I started running. I thought it was going to being a double and then I saw the left fielder misplayed it a little bit and so I went to third," Alford said. 

"My biggest thing is just trying to get on base and score runs, and I think I did a good job with setting the tone in my first at-bat. And then you had J.D. Davis come in behind me and hit a home run, and he made some adjustments, too. That was a slump-buster for him." 

Alford kept it going with singles in the second and seventh for his first multi-hit game since July 20. In a back-and-forth game, the Mississippi native said the dugout was electrified, reminding him of his time in the Midwest League to start the season.

"It was like every time [the Manatees] scored, we just came back, we responded. Everything kept on flowing every inning; even the innings we didn't score, we had someone put together a good at-bat," he said. "It reminded me of Lansing during that game because everyone was excited and relaxed. Pretty much just played to win, put up good numbers and have good stats."

After Brevard County tied it in the eighth, Jorge Saez led off the bottom of the ninth with a single and moved up on Andy Fermin's sacrifice. That set the stage for Alford. 

"'Gosh, this is a big situation. I've never hit a walk-off before in my life,'" he recalled thinking. "I'm just trying to hit the ball hard and, hopefully, it will find a hole. And that's what happened."

The double was the Blue Jays' second straight walk-off hit.

Alford batted .349 with a homer, two triples, six doubles and 18 runs scored in his first 20 games with Dunedin.

"I felt like I was comfortable within my first week. I feel like baseball is the same game. You [face] better players as you go up, but at the same time, there's a reason you're there because they think that you have the talent to play there. You just have to be confident in yourself," he said. "I'm pretty confident and I just go out there and try to let my ability take over. Just looking back over the past few weeks, I feel like I've been putting it together. I've hit balls hard, just right at people, I've been getting walks, I've been battling with two strikes and putting the ball in play.

"You have to just keep pushing forward and stay confident. I wouldn't say something changed or something clicked or I feel different, the ball's just starting to find holes now."

Alford's heroics made a winner of Chris Smith (3-1), who allowed one run on one hit while striking out two over two innings.