Pullin leads homer barrage for Fightins

Last year's nightly Home Run Derby between Double-A Reading's Rhys Hoskins and Dylan Cozens appears to have carried over to this season.
The faces are different, but count Andrew Pullin as a fan of a possible encore in 2017.
"It would be pretty cool," the outfielder said. "I hope so, that would be great. But I'm just trying to have good, consistent at-bats. With my approach, I'm never thinking home run. I want to be short to the ball and be ready for the fastball and hit line drives. If it gets out, great." 

Box score
The ball went out twice for Pullin on Monday night. The 23-year-old capped off his fourth career multi-homer game with a grand slam as the Fightin Phils rolled past the Harrisburg Senators, 9-1, at FNB Field. His five RBIs matched a career high.
Pullin also singled and finished with three hits for the third straight game. He sports a slash line of .381/.426/.746 with 10 multi-hit efforts in his first 15 games, and his five long balls are tied with teammate Scott Kingery, the Phillies No. 11 prospect, for the Eastern League lead. 
"No, I didn't know that," Pullin said. "But that's pretty cool to be competing with a great player like Scott. That would be fun if it continued."

Batting second behind Kingery, the native of Centralia, Washington launched a solo homer to right-center field off starter Jaron Long in the first inning. Pullin then lined a sharp single to center in the third for his fourth straight multi-hit game.
After he flied out and grounded out, the left fielder capped the scoring with a grand slam to right-center off Jake Johansen in the eighth. It was Pullin's first five-RBI game since 2015 with Class A Advanced Clearwater and his first multi-homer game since Aug. 21, when he went deep twice at Erie.
"I'm just trying to be relaxed and on time for every pitch," Pullin said. "I'm trying to stick to my zone and make good contact. Knowing what I can do and being consistent while shrinking the zone and swinging at pitches I can do damage with.
"It doesn't matter what the situation is, whether we're up big or it's a close game. I want to have the same approach every at-bat. You never want to give away at-bats, so I'm up there trying to get a good pitch to hit, make good contact and drive in some runs."
The Phillies' fifth-round pick in 2012 entered this season as a career .280 hitter with 42 home runs, but he broke out in 2016 when he hit .322/.362/.522 with 14 homers and 51 RBIs in 83 games across two levels.
Pullin spent more than a month on the disabled list with groin and elbow injuries, which came on the heels of starting the season a month late. He actually retired just prior to the start of the year.
"I had to take care of some problems back at home," he said. "But things worked out and the Phillies were great about everything. I really wasn't sure if I would come back, but I'm glad I did. It's been awesome." 

Kingery had two hits, including an RBI triple, and Phillies No. 24 prospect Carlos Tocci had three hits with an RBI and a run scored. Kyle Martin lofted his fourth home run of the year, a two-run blast in the seventh. 
Brandon Leibrandt (2-0) allowed one run on seven hits without a walk and seven strikeouts in six innings for Reading.
Long (2-2) surrendered two runs on six hits and a walk with a season-high eight strikeouts in five frames.