Riley rips two more homers for Stripers

Austin Riley is so hot that he found time to homer twice in a rain-shortened game. 
The Braves' No. 5 prospect bashed two more homers and finished 3-for-3 with five RBIs on Saturday as Triple-A Gwinnett blanked Durham, 10-0, in a contest that ended in the sixth. Riley has gone deep five times his last four games, with a pair of multi-homer efforts, to account for his 10 long balls on the season. 

The 22-year-old's night began with a knock to the left side off Durham starter Arturo Reyes in the first inning. Rafael Ortega scored before left fielder Kean Wong threw him out in an attempt to stretch it into a double. 
Two innings later, despite finding himself in an 0-2 hole against Reyes, MLB.com's No. 35 overall prospect flashed his opposite-field power and drilled a two-run shot to right. 
Gameday box score
Facing Luis Santos in the fourth, Riley crushed another two-run roundtripper way over the wall in left-center. His 10 jacks rank second in the International League behind Louisville's Josh VanMeter, who has 13.
One night after driving in four runs, Riley continued a bountiful weekend with five more. He's also second on the circuit behind VanMeter with 27 RBIs in 28 games. 

Rain prevented the 41st overall selection in the 2015 Draft to boost his stat line any higher. In fact, Riley's walk was the final play before the umpires called for the tarp.
Riley is batting .309/.372/.664, a marked improvement from the .200/.273/.333 mark he owned two weeks ago. Last week, he homered in three straight games and drilled two solo shots against Charlotte on Wednesday. 
"The first 10 or 12 games, I was hitting balls hard. I really was," Riley told MiLB.com last month. "Just balls weren't falling. The bad games really turned into worse games … and it was just kind of a tumble effect. I think balls are starting to fall now and the swing is feeling better. I'm seeing pitches well."

It's not as if success with the Stripers is a foreign concept for MLB.com's third-ranked third base prospect. Over 75 games in the IL last season, he batted .282 with 12 homers, 47 RBIs and an .810 OPS. 
But the power stroke evaded Riley through Spring Training this season. Although he possesses a 60-grade power grade on the scout's 20-80 scale, he collected one extra-base hit in his first 43 Grapefruit League at-bats. The 6-foot-3 slugger batted .259/.333/.407 with two homers, nine runs scored and five RBIs in 23 games at big league camp.
With a plus arm, Riley has spent most of his Minor League career at third base, playing 25 of 28 games there this year. But with Josh Donaldson manning the hot corner in Atlanta, he's spent some time at first (three games) as he sits one level from the Majors. 
Ortega scored twice and had three hits for the Stripers, while Travis Demeritte also homered.