Santana still shaking things up for Quakes
The Cristian Santana breakout took a couple years to materialize, but after a stellar 2017 campaign, he's proving to be more than capable of producing against stiffer competition in his first full season.On Thursday, the 24th-ranked Dodgers prospect recorded his second four-hit game in three days as Class A Advanced
The
On Thursday, the 24th-ranked Dodgers prospect recorded his second four-hit game in three days as Class A Advanced Rancho Cucamonga downed Lake Elsinore, 9-1, at LoanMart Field. Santana drove in four runs while falling a triple short of the cycle and boosting his average to .261.
Gameday box score
The Dominican Republic native belted his 22nd homer to move into a tie for the California League lead with Lancaster's
Santana blooped a single up in the middle in his first at-bat and went down swinging on four pitches in the third inning. He bounced back against Lake Elsinore starter
He added another base hit on the ground to the opposite field to drive home
Santana collected four hits and drove in a personal-best six runs in the series opener Tuesday, his second career four-hit game and the first since a 4-for-4 performance with Rookie-level Ogden last June. His six RBIs in that game eclipsed his previous record of five, set last July with Class A Great Lakes.
Signed for $50,000 as a 17-year-old in April 2014, Santana spent his first two seasons in the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League before making his stateside debut in the Rookie-level Arizona League in 2016. He batted .256/.278/.453 with eight homers and 24 RBIs over 42 games on the circuit and earned an invite to the instructional league.
Santana battered the Rookie-level Pioneer League to start 2017, compiling a slash line of .537/.583/1.000 with five homers and 16 RBIs in just 10 games before forcing a promotion in late June. He continued to mash in the Midwest League, compiling a .322/.339/.460 slash line with five roundtrippers and 25 RBIs for Class A Great Lakes.
This season, the 6-foot-2, 175-pounder first baseman has shown he possesses the eye-popping power to make up for some streakiness. He fell into the doldrums in June, batting .189/.211/.360, but clubbed six homers -- his best one-month total before matching that mark in August in half as many games. He drove in a season-low 12 runs and struck out a season-high 34 times that month. But the 21-year-old is batting .364/.379/.727 with 21 RBIs and 31 strikeouts in August.
Avila (7-8) was tagged for four runs on seven hits and two walks with seven strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings. The 21-year-old sports a 4.29 ERA with 121 whiffs over 119 2/3 innings this season.
Gerard Gilberto is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow and interact with him on Twitter, @GerardGilberto4.