Davis slams way to season-high five RBIs

J.D. Davis lifted a grand slam over the left-field fence in the fourth inning Thursday, and he immediately felt relief. The way the night started, he never saw such a performance coming.
"I had bases loaded in my second at-bat and I struck out," he said with a laugh. "I was pretty [ticked] off at myself. But I came through the second time."
Houston's No. 13 prospect did more than that, driving in a season-high five runs with a pair of homers in Double-A Corpus Christi's 11-6 victory over Frisco at Whataburger Field. He fell one short of his career high of six RBIs, set on Aug. 30, 2015 with Class A Advanced Lancaster.

Before the game, Davis made a minor adjustment in his swing. Though he had gone 9-for-21 over a six-game road trip against Springfield and Tulsa, he was 1-for-8 with six strikeouts in the first two games of the Hooks' series against the RoughRiders.
Gameday box score
"I was getting a little too long with my swing on my back side," the 2014 third-round pick said. "My bat head was looping and I was getting under balls and not putting them in play. Me and my hitting coach [Joel Chimelis] really worked on being direct to the baseball."
Davis flew out to right field in the first inning and struck out with the bases full to end the second, but the adjustment paid off when he belted a 1-2 pitch from Frisco right-hander David Ledbetter (1-4) over the wall in left for his fourth-inning grand slam.
"Me and [Chimelis], we always say stay on the fastball," he said. "During that at-bat, he threw me a lot of fastballs. Ledbetter has a good breaking ball, but I just kind of sold out on the fastball. I was going to try to just be on time with it the whole at-bat. He left one a little bit more out over the plate and I just squared it up."

The Cal State Fullerton product struck again three innings later, leading off the seventh with another blast to right. With the count 2-0, he said he was focused on being ready to go to the opposite field if he had to.
"Especially in those hitter's counts, I just really try to get my arms extended and stay inside the ball," Davis said. "I just try to keep my front shoulder in to help me not pull off on balls because the best thing I can do is drive the ball to all parts of the field."
With four homers in his last five games, Davis extended his lead in the Texas League home run lead to 16 in 52 games. The 24-year-old also ranks among the top 10 on the circuit in RBIs (35), total bases (117) and OPS (.906).

Having spent the year in the Texas League in 2016, familiarity has played a role in Davis' power surge this season. Through 51 games, he is 10 homers shy of the career-high 26 he belted for Lancaster in 2015. The California native said getting off to a better start has helped as well. He batted .172 without a long ball in April last season, but .280 with six homers in the first month of this season.

"Not having that first month in April last year compared to this year obviously got me on a good track," Davis said. "I'm just learning from what I learned last year. It is different this year. Everybody knows that I have power and people pitch around me. Coming back to the Texas League, it's a challenge to work on my patience. It's only going to benefit me as a hitter."
Houston's 26th-ranked prospect Jason Martin chipped in a two-run shot for Corpus Christi.
Brock Dykxhoorn (1-3) allowed four hits and two walks while striking out seven over 3 1/3 innings of relief en route to the victory.
Rangers No. 12 prospect Andy Ibáñez went 4-for-5 with a solo homer for the RoughRiders.