Slater homers twice for Flying Squirrels

For Austin Slater, jogging around the bases in the fifth inning felt reminiscent of his time as a Little Leaguer. Not because he was particularly exuberant, but because it was the last time he remembered having two home run trots in one game.

San Francisco's No. 20 prospect left the yard twice and tied a career high with four RBIs as Double-A Richmond trounced Binghamton, 11-2, on Wednesday at NYSEG Stadium.

"It felt great. I wasn't really thinking about doing that today or even in that third at-bat. It just happened," Slater said. "[My] swing felt loose and I got the pitches I was looking for."

The center fielder grounded out in his first at-bat, but got going in the third. He took an 0-1 pitch to right-center field for a two-run shot off Mets starter Rainy Lara.

"The first pitch was a breaking ball; I swung at it. I was actually sitting breaking ball to start off. I put a great swing on it, but fouled it back," Slater said. "And then I was just thinking, he's probably going to go back to the heater, and he did. It was a good pitch to drive and I was able to hit it out."

Two innings later, the 23-year-old slugged a leadoff shot off reliever Logan Taylor to left-center for the first multi-homer game of his career. He totaled five homers in three seasons at Stanford.

"I think that's the first time I've done that, at least since maybe Little League, so it felt pretty good," Slater said. "I felt locked in all night and I was able to jump on the pitches I was looking for."

The Jacksonville, Florida native knocked a single to right in the seventh, then slapped a deep fly ball to left in the eighth. That plated Eliezer Zambrano so "it wasn't a total waste," he laughed.

"I didn't think it [was going out] at all. I was a little upset that I got under it. I thought it was more to the left fielder [Victor Cruzado], more right at him. But it carried more than I was expecting it to. I guess I back-spun it a little better than I thought."

The big game marked the third time Slater tallied four RBIs in his career, with two of those contests coming in the past week. The 2014 eighth-round pick is hitting .438 with 10 hits and 11 RBIs over that span.

Of Slater's four at-bats Wednesday, only one had more than three pitches and that was his initial groundout -- though that wasn't exactly his plan.

"I've been more selectively aggressive this year, as opposed to other years. I feel like I've been seeing more pitches for the most part," he said. "Obviously today is an outlier, but I've been able to work more counts this year and been able to be more aggressive on the pitches that I want in hitters' counts and that's what I did. It just worked out that way."

Something else different about Slater's game this year has been the emergence of his power. While the right-handed hitter has 40-grade power with five home runs over his first two seasons, he has already matched that total in the first 34 games of the campaign.

"I've talked to our hitting coordinators and our hitting coaches here in Richmond, and I definitely have the ability to hit home runs. It's been a matter of putting the right swing on the right pitch. And that's part of the process," Slater said. "Obviously being in the Minor Leagues is figuring those kinds of things out, figuring out your swing, figuring out which pitches you hit the best and which pitches you can drive. So that's something I've been working on this year."

The Flying Squirrels tallied 11 runs on 16 hits, marking the first time Richmond reached double digits in runs this season. Hitting right behind Slater, cleanup hitter Tyler Horan collected three knocks and two RBIs.

"Obviously, it felt good. Morale is high. We went through a little rough patch there for a couple weeks, so I feel like everyone's loosened up and it's helped our lineup," he said. "It wasn't just one or two guys, it was everyone putting in quality at-bats. Even the guys who didn't have hits squared up two or three balls. So top to bottom, it was great effort and it was an all-around good game."