Generals' Chisholm slugs way to homer lead

After a power surge over the last 48 hours, Jazz Chisholm has claimed the Southern League home run lead.
The D-backs' top prospect smacked a pair of solo shots in Double-A Jackson's 6-3 loss to Tennessee on Saturday at Smokies Stadium. It was the fourth multi-homer game of his career and his second this season.

The performance propelled Chisholm ahead of Chattanooga's Ibandel Isabel for first in the league with eight long balls. MLB.com's No. 57 overall prospect didn't know after the game that he had taken over the top spot on the leaderboard, but he wasn't surprised. That was the plan all along.
"It feels great to be leading the league," he said. "I set my goal this year to lead the Southern League in homers. So, I've just got to keep on rolling."
Chisholm was hit by a pitch by Smokies starter Cory Abbott in his first at-bat. In the fifth, he got some revenge by sending the right-hander's second offering over the right-field fence for the Generals' first run of the game. He took Abbott deep again in the seventh, blasting a 2-2 pitch to right to get Jackson within 4-2.
The 21-year-old has struggled against inside pitches this season, and the Smokies knew that. Chisholm, however, knew something too: sooner or later, they'd slip up.
"They've been trying to attack me in all series," he said. "I've been taking the pitches in on the black, giving them that corner. But sometimes, I know not many pitchers -- or any pitchers -- can go in there three times in a row. He tried to come back in and just missed over the plate, twice, and I just took advantage of the mistake."
Gameday box score
Chisholm also raised his average to .172, up 68 points during the last two weeks. Over that span, he's homered six times and driven in 10 runs.
Last season, the Bahamas native stitched together a line of .272/.329/.513 across two Class A levels while homering 25 times, a record for any shortstop in the D-backs organization. That was a leap in power from 2017, when he went yard once in 29 games with Class A Kane County in his first full professional campaign, which was cut short by a meniscus injury.

Naturally, Chisholm wanted to keep that momentum going entering this season. In order to do so, he believes he simply needs to consistently drive the ball. If he can do that, he might just end the year setting another record, this time surpassing himself.
"Coming into the year, all I wanted to do was just barrel up as many balls as I can," he said. "When I barrel it up, it goes out ... just trying to do that every day, every at-bat, every pitch."
Robel Garcia had two hits, including a three-run homer, and Jared Young also collected three RBIs for Tennessee.