Krill collects five hits, seven RBIs

In his first 52 pro games with short-season Salem-Keizer last year, Brett Krill collected 24 extra-base hits. But through his first 47 games with Class A Augusta this year, he collected only six.

So he started working on his swing with GreenJackets hitting coach Nestor Rojas and manager Lipso Nava. And that paid off Sunday after the Giants outfield prospect went 5-for-6 with seven RBIs -- both career highs -- in Augusta's 19-7 romp over the host Rome Braves.

"Seems to be working," said Krill, who collected 22 extra-base hits in 56 games as a UCLA junior in 2010. "Obviously, the results I was getting weren't what I wanted. I was out of flow. My upper half and lower half weren't moving together. We made some changes, changed my hand [placement] to get more power because I wasn't hitting doubles and homers."

Batting eighth, the right-handed hitter struck an RBI single in the second inning and a two-run double in the fifth against Braves starter Rafael Briceno, a sinker-baller leaving his pitches high in the strike zone.

Facing lefty reliever Matt Talley in the sixth, Krill went deep for the first time in 2012, lifting a three-run longball.

"He left a changeup up, and I put a good swing on it," Krill said. "I wasn't trying to hit a home run there. With runners on base, I was just trying to hit the ball up the middle."

Relieved to get his first homer out of the way?

"It was," the 6-foot-4, 220-pound slugger said, "way overdue in my opinion."

Just a three-bagger shy of the cycle at this point, Krill had two more at-bats ahead of him: He doubled in the eighth and singled home a run in the ninth, bringing his total bases to 10.

"After the double, [teammate] Elliott Blair said, 'You could have had the cycle if you ran a little harder,'" said Krill, who entered play 6-for-his-last-35 and batting .203. "I wasn't thinking about it. I didn't know."

The 25th-round draftee in 2010 established his previous single-game bests in hits (five) and RBIs (five) as a member of the short-season Volcanoes last year. He accomplished the former in six at-bats in a July 17 win over Yakima, and the latter when he struck a grand slam in a July 5 win over Everett. He also had a two-slam, eight-RBI game at California high school Aliso Niguel.

He wasn't the only GreenJacket to produce. The lineup established season highs in runs, hits (24) and margin of victory, besting its 17-hit line in Friday's 16-4 win over Rome. (Hagerstown has South Atlantic League club's largest outburst: The Suns scored 24 runs on 24 hits and outscored Rome by 22 runs on April 25.)

"One of our guys [leadoff man Kelby Tomlinson] didn't have a hit," Krill said, "and we wanted to get him a hit."

Tomlinson -- who had walked, lifted an RBI sacrifice fly and lined out twice -- singled in the ninth -- the fifth straight frame that his team scored a run.

Every other hitter had a mult-hit game, and five had three-hit games: Wes Hodges, who started the season at Double-A Richmond, went 3-for-6 with the other home run, a two-run shot off of Briceno in the fifth.

Briceno (3-6) was charged with 11 runs on 13 hits over five frames.

Derek Law (4-0), the first of Joe Biagini's three relievers, struck out seven over 3 2/3 scoreless innings.