Kingery ruling Minors' home run race

The Minor League home run lead has bounced around among several players in recent weeks, being tied by as many as six at once.
After Monday's matinee, Scott Kingery sits alone at the top.
Philadelphia's No. 11 prospect homered on the first pitch of the game and finished a triple shy of the cycle as Double-A Reading snapped a nine-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over New Hampshire at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium.

The long ball was Kingery's 16th of the year, coming in his fifth game with at least three hits this season.
The second baseman entered the campaign with eight home runs in 197 career games. He was named the  Eastern League Player of the Week after slugging five long balls between May 15-21 and has gone deep three times in eight games since then.
"Everyone keeps asking me if I'm a home-run hitter and I keep telling them no," Kingery told MiLB.com. "I'm honestly just trying to put a good line-drive swing on the ball, and for some reason I'm hitting them in the air and they're getting some carry on them. ... I wasn't thinking about home runs coming into the season and I'm still not thinking about home runs."
The 2015 second-round pick led off a game with a dinger for the first time in 2017, taking Jon Harris' opening offering over the left-field wall. Kingery went the other way with a single to right in the second and struck out to end the fourth in his final at-bat against Harris, who settled in after giving up the leadoff home run. The right-hander gave up two runs on five hits with a season-high seven strikeouts and three walks over six innings for New Hampshire.
Gameday box score
John Stilson relieved Harris and missed with three of his first four pitches, setting up Kingery with a 3-1 count. The 23-year-old promptly doubled to left and scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Pullin before coming up in the eighth with a shot at the cycle.
Kingery wasn't even given a chance by Stilson, who intentionally walked the Eastern League's OPS leader (1.067) to load the bases with two outs before Carlos Tocci grounded out to third to end the inning.
Not only does Kingery lead the Minors in home runs and the EL in OPS, the University of Arizona product is also the circuit leader with 48 runs scored -- 17 more than second-place Mike Gerber of Erie. Kingery also tops the league in extra-base hits (30), total bases (123) and slugging percentage (.676).
He also stands tied for with Hartford's Max White for third in the league with 12 stolen bases. Kingery's career low in stolen bases -- 11 in 2015 -- was higher than his career home run total before the season.
"I don't think I've ever had more home runs than stolen bases at any point in my career," he told MiLB.com.
After hitting .250/.273/.333 in 37 games at Reading following a late July promotion last season, Kingery has broken through in 2017 with a .313/.391/.676 batting line and 30 RBIs in 45 games. He has more than tripled his walk rate to 9.9 percent after coming in at 3 percent with the Fightin Phils in 2016.
Kingery credited some offseason work for the improvement.

"I made a few adjustments in the offseason to stay on my back leg more," he told MiLB.com. "Last season, I was doing a lot of drifting forward and getting off balance and lunging at balls. Staying back on my back leg gives me a chance to get some good swings on off-speed pitches."
Starter Brandon Leibrandt allowed two runs on eight hits and three walks with five strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings, and Joey DeNato (3-1) issued one walk in two-thirds of an inning for Reading, 
Stilson (0-1) yielded two runs on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts in two innings for New Hampshire.