Tortugas' Sparks busts out with two blasts

Taylor Sparks has been learning to put adversity behind him and focus on controlling what he can control.

The Reds' No. 19 prospect has dealt with a fair share of adversity at the plate this season, but he broke out Saturday night with a pair of homers, a double and four RBIs as Class A Advanced Daytona topped Dunedin, 11-6. It was his first career multi-homer game.

"Basically, my whole approach was staying on the fastball," Sparks said. "I was making sure that I was on time [with it]. I was just trying to be aggressive and not throw away any at-bats and making sure I got to the pitches they left over the plate. I was making sure I was hitting the mistakes. It turned out well."

The University of California-Irvine product hit .214 in April and was stuck in a 4-for-32 funk dating to May 18. His slash line moved up to .194/.250/.300 after Saturday's performance.

Sparks said Tortugas hitting coach Gookie Dawkins has spent the last couple of weeks working to get him more in tune and ready to hit the fastball, no matter the count, while still remaining aggressive at the dish. Dawkins also stressed confidence in the midst of a slump.

"The biggest problem was thinking that it's tweaking my mechanics [that's the fix]," Sparks said. "Whenever you think your swing's off, you struggle at the plate.

"[Dawkins] has helped me a lot with basically being ready to hit the fastball. I didn't know at the time, but early in the season, I was on my heels. I'm being more aggressive. It's been an approach and mental thing that's been the biggest change [over the last couple weeks]. You want to be able to attack the pitches that are mistakes over the plate. The biggest thing was making sure I take advantage of those hitter's counts after working so hard to get there."

The 2014 second-round pick started his night with a one-out double in the second inning, connecting on an off-speed pitch from Dunedin starter Kyle Westwood (0-6). In the fourth and sixth, he took what he'd learned and belted home runs off on fastballs in tough counts, both off Westwood, who surrendered four long balls in six innings.

"One of the at-bats that I was proud of was my second home run," Sparks said. "It was with two strikes and it was a fastball inside. Even with two strikes, I was still on the fastball, and I could get to it and barrel it. That's what I've been working on in the last week. I felt like I was able to really make an impact at the plate in any count. The swings felt good."

Daytona was last in the Florida State League with a .226 team batting average but totaled 14 hits as Angelo Gumbs went 4-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs. Ronald Bueno chipped in two hits, including a solo homer.

Tortugas starter Tejay Antone (4-3) cruised with the big lead and took a two-hitter into the eighth. He ended up allowing five runs on six hits and a walk with five strikeouts over eight innings in matching his longest outing of the season.