Cards' Bader triples twice on perfect night

Harrison Bader will be the first to tell you he ran into some good fortune on Wednesday night.

"Triples are kind of one of those things -- you can't hit a triple on purpose. It falls into place for you," said the Cardinals' No. 17 prospect.

Of course, Bader did his part in the batter's box. He wound up collecting his first two professional three-baggers as part of his first four-hit game, driving in three runs and scoring another in Class A Peoria's 7-5 victory at Cedar Rapids. 

"It was kind of just one of those nights where everything seemed to turn in my favor, and we got a win out of it," the third-round pick said of his 4-for-4 night. "It is a good accomplishment. It feels good for sure."

The 21-year-old center fielder earned a promotion after slashing .379/.400/.655 over seven Class A Short Season appearances in the New York-Penn League. Since coming to the Class A Midwest League 43 games ago, he's batting .292 with six homers, 23 homers and 14 steals in 20 attempts.

He collected an infield single off Kernels starter Sam Clay in the second inning and socked a run-scoring triple to left-center off the southpaw in the fourth. The very next inning, he victimized Clay again with another three-bagger for two more RBIs.

"The second [triple], it was a line drive to left field. They have a kind of a funky wall here and it took a good hop," Bader said. "To hit two [triples] in one game, that's definitely cool. I've never done that before."

He welcomed Cedar Rapids reliever Michael Theofanopoulos into the game with a leadoff hit up the middle in the eighth.

"From the confidence side of things, regardless of how your day is going, whether you're 3-for-3 or 0-for-3 of whatever it is, you have to stay with the same confidence. I always have confidence in my swing, but it was one of those nights," Bader said. 

"I just stuck with my normal approach, which was working, staying in the middle of the field and try to jump on fastball. I got a fastball I could handle and just got a broken-bat single up the middle. But getting my single was all I was trying to do."

The University of Florida product, whose speed rates a 55 on the 20-80 scouting scale, was caught breaking for second to end the inning after each of his singles.

"It's definitely a part of my game. I do anything I can -- if I get a single, I want to turn it into a double as fast as possible," Bader said. "One of the best pieces of advice I've received about stealing bases is 'you can't be scared of getting picked off.' You pick your count and you go with it. I got picked off early in the game. Yeah, it happens.

"It's a funky thing when it happened a second time, whether that was my choosing a bad count to go on or if they just guessed right. It's frustrating that it was twice to end an inning. But our manager, Joe Kruzel, does a good job letting us run, and I'm not going to hesitate or anything like that next time I have the chance. "

Ian McKinney (3-0) remained undefeated after giving up four runs on seven hits over six innings for the win.

Twins outfield prospect Edgar Corcino went 3-for-5 with a double and an RBI for the Kernels.