Generals' Smith collects four more hits

It took Pavin Smith all of five games to move from a frustratingly slow start back to respectability. And he did it with a bang.
Arizona's No. 16 prospect reached base six times in his second straight four-hit game as Double-A Jackson outslugged Birmingham, 14-12, in 10 innings Sunday night at Regions Field. The teams combined for 32 hits, including a Southern League season-high 20 by the Generals.

"Something clicked a few games ago against Chattanooga," Smith said. "I was either late on fastballs or taking them, so I focused on being on-time and adjusting to everything else. I went up the middle against a left-hander and I told myself, 'That's what I need to do.' It was the start of a much clearer approach instead of being in a gray area."

Smith closed out Saturday's four-hit game with a double and a single and didn't slow down a night later. He singled in each of his first two at-bats and doubled to left field leading off the sixth inning for his fifth consecutive hit. A walk in the seventh put him on base again and his single to left in the eighth clinched his second straight four-hit game.
The 23-year-old walked in the 10th and will enter his next contest having reached base in eight straight plate appearances.
"I've been trying to find my swing and tweak a few things," Smith said. "I went back and looked at some videos of me playing in college [at the University of Virginia]. The main thing I focused on was my approach and finding a pitch I can handle instead of sitting on multiple pitches. Doing that has made me either early or late on virtually every pitch. I had a few hot streaks earlier in the year, but nothing like this and they didn't last because I didn't have a clear understanding of how to keep it going. I think I've gotten a better grasp on how to do that more consistently now."
It's the sixth time Smith collected four or more hits in a game. He did so last Aug. 18 with Class A Advanced Visalia and three times during his first professional season with Class A Short Season Hillsboro in 2017. That year included a career-high five-hit performance on July 18 against Vancouver in which he fell a homer shy of the cycle while scoring five runs and driving in three.
Gameday box score
Smith hit .318/.401/.415 in his first taste of pro ball after he was chosen seventh overall in the 2017 Draft. He spent all of last year with Visalia, where he batted .255/.343/.392 with 37 extra-base hits and 54 RBIs in 120 games. A slow start this season got worse for Smith, with a 4-for-35 stretch from May 18-28 leaving him with a .213/.316/.356 slash line. However, the Jupiter, Florida, native is 13-for-20 in his last five games to raise his average 48 points to .261. That represents his highest mark since going 1-for-2 on Opening Night.
"I think it was just a slow start and having to adjust to some things," Smith said. "It was super frustrating, especially coming off a pretty good spring. I thought back to last year and how badly I started out then, so I just cleared my head and tried to go into every day with a new mind-set."

D-backs No. 4 prospect Daulton Varsho and 11th-ranked Andy Young both went deep during multi-hit games and No. 25 Dominic Miroglio collected a season-high three hits while driving in two runs. The Generals scored five times in the 10th, highlighted by back-to-back homers from Ramon Hernandez and Matt Jones.

Luis Robert extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a single, then blasted a mammoth solo homer for the Barons. It was the third Double-A roundtripper for the second-ranked White Sox prospect and his 11th this season. No. 18 Gavin Sheets doubled, singled and drove in a career-high five runs, giving him 11 in his last four games.
Jackson's Junior Garcia (2-0) worked around a walk in a scoreless ninth to pick up his second win in as many days. Major League veteran Ricky Nolasco started for the Generals and allowed two runs on five hits and a pair of walks with four strikeouts in four innings.