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Brown gets grizzly at plate for Fresno

Giants' No. 20 prospect scores four runs, misses cycle by triple
August 8, 2014

Gary Brown might have looked right at home when he homered in the first at-bat of a five-game road series Thursday, but he admitted he was still finding his bearings.

"It was almost kind of a blur. Travel days are weird -- it always feels like two days," said the Giants' 20th-ranked prospect. "I was just happy to come out and get a hit, and then have a good game."

Brown went 4-for-6 with four runs scored and two stolen bases while falling a triple shy of the cycle in Triple-A Fresno's 11-4 trouncing of Tacoma. 

"I'm trying to do what I can do and I've been playing pretty good," he said. "But I've had a lot of tough times lately and I'm trying to focus on the positive."

The 25-year-old outfielder raised his average to .270 with the four-hit performance, and the two thefts gave him 30 bags in 47 attempts over 114 Pacific Coast League games this year. Last season, he had 17 steals in 28 tries over 137 PCL games.

"I'd love to steal 100 every year," Brown said. "It's tough when there are scouting reports out there on you, but it was something I worked at a lot earlier in the season. I'm trying to get better every day, every time I'm fortunate enough to get on the ballfield."

After the Cal State Fullerton product went deep to left field off Erasmo Ramirez for his ninth homer of the year, he singled to left in the third against Matt Palmer. He swiped second base, then third and scored on a wild pitch. He popped out in the fourth, but smacked a double to center in the sixth.

Gary Brown has 122 hits in 114 Pacific Coast League games this year. (Kenny Karst/MiLB.com)

Against Blake Beavan in the eighth, Brown roped a single to left, then struck out against Carson Smith in the ninth. Brown felt no pressure to shoot for a triple for a very simple reason.

"I didn't know I had a double," he said. "I thought it was a single and an error. I was just trying to get a hit, but that last guy was pretty filthy and I had to go sit back down on the bench with a strikeout."

In his second game for the Grizzlies, Jarrett Parker smacked a grand slam and a double.

"That was awesome," Brown said of Parker's bases-clearing blast in the eighth. "He just missed one the at-bat before. It hit the top of the wall. He had a great at-bat and he hit an absolute bomb."

Stefen Romero was 3-for-4 with a home run for the Rainiers.

Josh Jackson is a contributor to MiLB.com.