Barnum blasts two homers for Barons

Since being drafted in 2012, Keon Barnum has developed the reputation of being a streaky hitter.
He's hoping the most productive night of his career is the beginning of something big. 
The White Sox prospect homered twice and collected a career-high six RBIs to lead Double-A Birmingham to an 8-2 rout of Jacksonville on Saturday. 

"It's a great feeling after putting in all that hard work and a lot of effort in the cages," the 24-year-old said. "It's nice to see the results of all the work come through in a game."
Box score
With the Barons trailing, 1-0, in the fifth, Barnum lifted a 1-1 fastball from Severino González over the center field wall for his second homer of the year. 
"I struggled being on time on the fastball in the early part of the year," the Florida native said. "Tonight, I slowed things down to help me be on time. A lot of pitchers like throwing me soft and away, to get me reaching, and then they try to sneak a fastball on me inside.
"I try to set my vision to left-center and just try to drive the ball away and go with the pitch, wherever they locate it."
Barnum capped a six-run eighth by smashing a 1-1 offering from James Buckelew (0-1) to center for a grand slam. 

"I was trying to load early and get on time so I could put a good swing on it," said Barnum, selected 48th overall in 2012. "That's pretty much [what] I did for both home runs. I set my timing right, got my foot down, and put two good swings on the ball."
Barnum knows this season is vital in his development and toward the goal of reaching the Major Leagues. After spending more than two seasons with Class A Advanced Winston-Salem, the 6-foot-5 first baseman was promoted to Birmingham last June. In 76 games with the Barons in 2016, Barnum hit .194, but his spirits were lifted when he found out that he'd start with the Barons this year.
"I'm definitely excited to start the season at Double-A, but I know it'll be hard because it's a grind everywhere you go." he said. "No matter where you're playing you need to perform and put it in the work off the field. I feel like at every level you still need to have the same mindset, you need to take it serious but have fun. The key thing is to be patient with pitchers at this level because they try to get you to dip and dive. So, I'm working on waiting for my pitch, rather than go after a good pitcher's pitch.
"It is true that tomorrow is a new slate, but at the same time you need to build off positive energy, both in this game and in life period, so I'm just going to do my best to build off of this game and keep trying my best going forward."

Cleuluis Rondon continued his hot start to 2017 with a single and a double. The 23-year-old Venezuelan is hitting .345 in nine games.
Colton Turner (3-1) didn't allow a baserunner and struck out three in two innings of relief for the Barons.