Duvall joins 30-100 club in 2012 finale

After slugging a two-run homer in the eighth frame of an Aug. 29 11-inning loss to Lake Elsinore, San Jose third baseman Adam Duvall knew he was on the cusp of something pretty special.

With 29 homers, 97 RBIs and 97 runs scored, the 11th-round Draft pick realized he had four games to reach the rarefied air of the 30-100-100 club. Then he stopped hitting.

The University of Louisville alum went 0-for-12 with two runs scored in his next three games, jeopardizing his chance to achieve a feat that no other San Jose hitter had accomplished in at least the past seven years.

But with one big swing of the bat Monday afternoon, everything fell into place.

San Francisco's No. 15 prospect slugged a three-run homer in the first frame of the Class A Advanced Giants' 5-3 win over the Modesto Nuts. The blast gave Duvall round numbers in all three categories as well as a personal sense of pride and achievement.

"It was good to get it over with in the first at-bat, that's for sure," Duvall said. "Two runners got on base in the first inning and I knew that was my chance to drive in those runs.

"I thought about that I only had one game left. If I didn't get it, I wouldn't have been too disappointed because I still have the playoffs left, but it was something that I wanted to do. The 30 home runs wasn't as big as the 100 RBIs, but it was pretty cool that I got all three of those [milestones] in the same at-bat."

Since 2005, only seven other players have hit 30 homers, plated 100 runs and scored 100 runs in the same season. Tacoma's Alex Liddi was the most recent to do it in 2011, joining Visalia's Paul Goldschmidt and Salt Lake's Mark Trumbo in 2010, Lancaster's Jon Gaston in '09, Chris Carter of Stockton in '08, Albuquerque's Scott Seabol in '07 and Brandon Wood, also while with the Bees, in 2006.

On Monday, the third baseman didn't wait long to join them.

Joe Panik stroked a one-out single to center field, and Carter Jurica followed with a ground ball to right field. Duvall got ahead of Roberto Padilla and then cleared the fences in center field with one big swing.

"[Padilla] threw me two changeups -- I swung through one -- and I figured he was coming back with a fastball," Duvall said. "I sat on it and got the good part of the bat on it.

"I didn't know it was gone, but I knew I had hit it well. It was a low home run, but it ended up going out. Once I rounded first base and saw the center fielder had stopped running, I knew it had gone. I was pretty happy about it."

Duvall's homer extended his own San Jose single-season record. Tim Flaherty previously held the record with 26 homers during the 2001 season, but Duvall surpassed his mark on Aug. 17.

Duvall entered the game batting .190 over his last 10 games and just .242 since the All-Star break. He said he had started to press during the stretch, but that his bat came around at just the right time with the playoffs on the horizon.

"I had been on 97 RBIs for three or four games, so coming into the last day I just wanted to give it a shot," said Duvall, who homered in five consecutive games between Aug. 3-8 and was named to the California League postseason All-Star team. "My swing was a little long the last couple days, so I got in the cage and tried to shorten it up.

"I was pulling a lot of balls earlier in the week, but I got a fastball over the middle of the plate and took it to center field, which I am supposed to do. I don't really care about my statistics, all I want to do is drive in runs and help my team win."

The Giants had already clinched a berth in the playoffs prior to the game, meaning they will play in the postseason for the ninth consecutive year. They will play the Nuts again in the best-of-3 division series, beginning Wednesday.