Red Wings' Park smashes three homers

Between the negotiating fee and Byungho Park's four-year contract, the Minnesota Twins committed $24.85 million to sign him out of the Korea Baseball Organization last offseason because of his potentially prodigious power. Other offensive woes led to his assignment to Triple-A Rochester earlier this month, but that power sure did show up with the Red Wings on Thursday afternoon.

Batting fifth in the order, Park slugged three homers and plated five runs to lead Rochester to a 13-5 win over Pawtucket at McCoy Stadium. The feat was the third three-homer game of the International League season, following Adam Walker for Rochester on May 21 and Tyler Austin for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on June 24. Before Walker, no Red Wings player had hit three long balls in a contest since Leo Gomez on April 9, 1990.

Park, a 30-year-old right-handed-hitting first baseman/DH, showed power to all fields Thursday. His leadoff homer in the sixth inning off righty reliever William Cuevas cleared the fence in right-center. He opened the eighth with another long ball off Cuevas, this time going out to left, and capped his day with a three-run shot off righty Casey Janssen in the ninth that he sent over McCoy's batter's eye in center. 

"He was impressive," Pawtucket manager Kevin Boles told the Providence Journal. "He ran into a few balls earlier in the series as well. He can backspin a ball. It gets up in the air and goes. Very few guys can do it that way. I can see why the Twins are high on him because he's some kind of strong."

The outburst was the latest and greatest in a string of powerful performances from the South Korea native. Including Thursday's contest, Park has gone deep eight times in his last 10 games with the Red Wings to lead all Minor Leaguers over that span. Since being sent to Triple-A on July 1, he owns a .286/.368/.675 slash line with nine homers -- the most in the International League this month -- three doubles and 16 RBIs in 21 games for the Red Wings.

The Twins signed Park this offseason after he proved to be the KBO's most prodigious slugger the last few years. He led the circuit in home runs for four straight seasons from 2012 to 2015, topping out at 53 for Nexen last year.

Minnesota rotated him with Joe Mauer at first base and DH through the first three months of the season, but Park never quite caught on in his new league and country. He hit .191 with 12 homers and a 32.8 percent strikeout rate over 62 games in the Majors before being optioned July 1 to make room for a returning Miguel Sano.

"I'm trying to get my rhythm and balance back, and that's going to lead to getting my confidence back," Park told Rochester Democrat and Chronicle through a translator earlier this month. "I was facing big-league pitchers every day who I haven't seen before. That kind of led to my struggles, and that kind of got me to lose my confidence."

Park is owed $8.75 million over the next three seasons with a $6.5 million team option for the 2020 campaign. He's likely to return to the big club come September roster expansions, if this recent power surge doesn't force the issue earlier.

Twins No. 21 prospect Daniel Palka went 3-for-5 with a homer, a double, three RBIs and two runs scored out of the third spot in the Red Wings lineup. The 24-year-old outfielder/DH owns a .315/.398/.603 line with five homers, six doubles, 11 RBIs and 17 runs scored in 19 games since getting promoted from Double-A Chattanooga earlier this month.