Red Wings' Kepler falls single shy of cycle

Max Kepler did not hit for the cycle Thursday night, but he came close enough that it was on his mind for three innings.

"A couple guys jinxed it, which I wasn't happy about. Then we had that long stretch [of the game]. From my fourth to my fifth at-bat, it felt like a good hour-and-a-half," Minnesota's No. 2 prospect said. "There were pitching changes, the other team started to hit. ... By the end of the game, everyone was cold. It was tough, but I hope I get another chance to do it in the future."

A ninth-inning strikeout meant Kepler finished a single shy and had to settle for his second straight three-hit game. He went 3-for-5 with his first Triple-A homer, three RBIs and two runs scored in Rochester's 6-3 win at Durham. The performance boosted Kepler's International League slash line to .274/.355/.463 through 25 games.

"I try to go out with the same mentality every day," he said, having entered May with a .208 average and after suffering an 0-for-5 night Tuesday. "It's not fun to have an 0-for-day or two in a row, but I'm trying to appreciate the hard hits even if they go right at people. I trust myself and I tell myself that nothing is wrong."

MLB.com's No. 40 prospect overall opened the season in Triple-A for the first time, having started 2014 and 2015 with Class A Advanced Fort Myers in the Florida State League and he moved up to Double-A Chattanooga after six games with the Miracle last year. The chilly climates of Rochester -- and through his nine April games in the Majors -- "definitely" were an adjustment for Kepler.

"We started off in Rochester and we had the heaters going every game. We were doing everything possible to keep our hands and bats warm," the Berlin native said. "Then we traveled somewhere warm and the bats heated up. The weather is a huge part of baseball. It affects everybody -- the pitchers and the hitters. Unfortunately, this has been a longer winter than usual."

In his first at-bat, he saw eight pitches from Bulls starter Justin Marks (1-4), hammering the final pitch deep into right-center field for a stand-up RBI triple.

"The more pitches I collect against a certain guy in an at-bat, the bigger the ball gets to me and the more experience I seem to gather," Kepler said.

It was his sixth three-bagger of the year, which leads all of Triple-A.

"Triples are a [heck] of a lot of fun," the 23-year-old outfielder said. "I always appreciate the slide. When I don't do the slide, it's not as fun. Of course I like a stand-up triple, but when I'm diving in head-first or sliding in and it's a bang-bang play, that's the most exciting and it gets the fans excited too. Tonight, I jogged in. That's a lot of fun too."

Facing Marks with two outs in the fifth, Kepler socked the first pitch over the wall in left-center. He thought, for a moment, he might get another chance to slide into third.

"I was pushing for my second triple of the game and then they told me to slow down," he said. "I honestly thought I squared up the first ball a lot better than the home run, but the way there's an indent in that part of the outfield, it's a little deeper in right-center than it is in left-center."

The left-handed hitter knocked a two-out RBI double to right off Parker Markel in the seventh, but Danny Farquhar struck him out on three pitches in the ninth.

Adam Walker, the Twins' No. 10 prospect, had his first two-homer game of the season, taking Marks deep to left-center in the second and hitting a dinger to the same spot off Markel in the seventh. His performance came a night after Kennys Vargas homered in a fourth consecutive game.

"Walker was hitting them off the third balcony up. It's out of this world," Kepler said. "I'm always happy to see the big sluggers heat up and get what they deserve. Walker, he's had a rough patch, but when he makes contact, it's going."