Bats slugger Dixon smacks three homers

On Sunday, Brandon Dixon played the role of Louisville slugger. 
The Reds infielder smacked three homers and collected a career-high seven RBIs to power Triple-A Louisville to a 13-6 win over Rochester at Louisville Slugger Field.

Gameday box score
"Things like this you got to just enjoy," Dixon said. "It's not something you expect to happen because it's pretty rare. It's late in the season, it's August and guys are starting to get tired, so it's kind of a breath of fresh air to have a day like this."
With Dixon in the on-deck circle in the first inning, Reds No. 26 prospectAlex Blandino battled Stephen Gonsalves (1-1) for seven pitches before taking the southpaw deep to left for a solo shot. The long at-bat gave Dixon a good idea of what thethird-ranked Twins prospect was working with and he sent a 2-1 slider over the fence in left-center field.

"Having one of your first two hitters in the lineup put together an at-bat like that, you get an idea of how he's going to attack you and what he has," Dixon said. "He threw me a slider inside that he left a little bit over the plate. It wasn't necessarily the pitch I was looking for, but it was something up that I could put a good swing on."
Dixon fell behind Gonsalves, 0-2, in the second but took advantage of a mistake that the 23-year-old left over the plate and slugged a two-run homer to left. 

"He threw me three fastballs and I just missed the first two and he threw the last one kind of up-and-in and I was still able to get the barrel to it," Dixon said.
With the 2013 third-round pick set to lead off the fourth for the Bats, the Red Wings replaced Gonsalves with another left-hander, Mason Melotakis. Dixon wasted no time, turning on the first pitch depositing it over the left-center field fence for another solo homer. It was the first three-homer for Louisville since Austin Kearns accomplished the feat on July 5, 2005.
"I knew my timing was feeling good for the day, so I was just trying to get on time for a fastball and I got one over the plate and the rest took care of itself," the California native said.
After Louisville batted around, Dixon dug in with the bases loaded and promptly cleared them with a double to left off Melotakis to give him a career-high seven RBIs and 14 total bases. He eclipsed his previous best of six RBIs, set on May 29, 2016 for Double-A Pensacola.

When Dixon got back to the dugouts, he was the subject of some ribbing from his teammates.
"A few of the guys were joking with me that I needed to hit that one a little bit higher and further and that they were disappointed that it was only a double," he said.
Dixon raised his slugging percentage 32 points and boosted his OPS 37 points to .768 through 108 games this season. In addition to showing some pop with a .194 ISO and 41 extra-base hits in 382 at-bats, he's proven himself an adept utility man, seeing time at first base, third base, left field and right field.
"Going into every year, I never know where I'm going to play, but as long as I can show that I'm capable of playing multiple positions it gives the team more options and, hopefully, the hitting takes care of itself," Dixon said.
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Blandino also walked twice and scored three runs, while Tyler Goeddel and Scott Van Slyke each chipped in two hits and an RBI for Louisville. Bats starter Rookie Davis (3-2) gave up five runs on six hits over six innings for the win and Evan Mitchell worked the final three frames for his first Triple-A save.
Niko Goodrum homered for the Red Wings, giving him 11 RBIs in his last four games.