Matthes lofts three homers, seven RBIs

Modesto's Kent Matthes loves to hit with two strikes. And Sunday, he cultivated a career night by doing just that.

Matthes smacked two of his three home runs and a double with two strikes on him en route to a seven-RBI game as the Class A Advanced Nuts outlasted the High Desert Mavericks, 13-9, in a slugfest.

"I need to stick with my two-strike approach," he said. "I just foul off good pitches and try to hang in there."

The 24-year-old outfielder grounded out in the first inning, hit two-run shots in the third and fifth and added a three-run blast in the seventh. He doubled in the final frame.

Matthes, who went deep twice July 9 against Stockton, now has 20 longballs on the season. He couldn't remember collecting three since as far back as Little League.

"But there was no fence, so those would have been ground balls that got by all the fielders," he laughed. "They were still running back to get the ball when I touched home."

The seven-RBI night vaulted Matthes into second place in the California League with 81, eight off the pace of Lake Elsinore's Nathan Freiman.

A Rockies' fourth-round pick in 2009, he was limited to just 21 games last year after having surgery on a torn patellar tendon that had bothered him since college. He has stayed relatively healthy in 2011, playing in 85 of his team's 100 games and cultivating a .330 average over that span.

"I'm just happy to be healthy this year," Matthes said. "I worked hard to rehab my knee, and it's paying off."

The Nuts slugged seven home runs, including two by Angelys Nina and one apiece by Beau Seabury and Josh Rutledge. Eleven of Modesto's 16 hits went for extra bases.

Gabriel Noriega drove in three runs and Steven Proscia and Denny Almonte both went yard for High Desert.

Edwar Cabrera (2-0) struck out 11 while allowing three runs on seven hits over six innings to pick up the win.