Franco continues to slug for M-Braves

Carlos Franco has been in Atlanta's system since 2009, but he's never had a month quite like this. 
Franco continued his May home run surge by crushing a go-ahead grand slam to power the Double-A Mississippi Braves to a 6-4 win over Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp on Thursday night at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.

The infielder has gone yard in three consecutive games and seven times in May -- the most he's hit in any month during his nine-year professional career.  
Franco leads the Southern League with 11 roundtrippers and is one away from a new career high. The native of the Dominican Republic also smacked 11 homers in 134 games with Class A Advanced Carolina in 2015. 
After striking out in his first at-bat in in the second inning, Franco singled to right field off No. 28 Marlins prospectJoe Gunkel in the fourth. 
Gameday box score
Mississippi trailed, 4-1, in the fifth when the 25-year-old stepped up with the bases loaded and two outs. After working the count full, he smacked an offering from lefty James Buckelew (0-3) onto the walkway beyond the right-field bleachers.
Franco added a single up the middle in the eighth off Severino González to cap his 12th multi-hit performance this season. 
In 2016, Franco amassed a slash line of .255/.339/.330 with four home runs and 53 RBIs. Now in his second season in the Southern League, he is hitting .293/.358/.560 and leads the Southern League with 38 RBIs.  

Dylan Moore lofted a solo homer in the ninth and Luis Valenzuela added two hits, an RBI and a run scored for Mississippi.  
Braves No. 4 prospectMike Soroka (4-3) surrendered four runs -- three earned -- on six hits and four walks while striking out five in five innings. Bradley Roney gave up a hit and a walk and fanned three over two scoreless frames for his second save.
No. 27 Marlins prospect John Norwood, David Vidal and Austin Nola had two hits apiece for Jacksonville.