Higashioka plates career-high seven runs

When Kyle Higashioka got back to the dugout after hitting his second home run Sunday, his Double-A Trenton teammates had to ask if it was still him. He's been that hot at the plate.

The Yankees farmhand homered twice, doubled and drove in a career-high seven runs to power the Thunder to a 12-2 thumping of Akron at Canal Park.

Higashioka got the ball rolling with an RBI double to center field in the first inning off RubberDucks starter Julian Merryweather, who was making his Double-A debut. After flying out to right in the third, the 26-year-old catcher responded in a big way with the first of his two long balls in the fourth.

"It was [Merryweather's] third time through the order and his stuff wasn't quite as sharp as it was at the beginning of the game. He was leaving a lot of balls up," Higashioka said. "It was first and second, so he kind of had to come after me in a 2-1 [count] with the fastball. He left one up."

The California native's RBI total had risen to four, one shy of the career high he set on June 10 with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. But when he stepped up in the ninth with runners at first and second, the number barely entered his mind.

 "Obviously, every game you're trying to drive in as many runs as you can, but I wasn't keeping track," he said. "I was just, you know, trying to score them any way I could."

Higashioka did just that when he lifted a pitch from Nick Maronde over the wall in straightaway center field for his fourth homers in as many days.

"That [at-bat] was a little different. I got down, 0-2, pretty quickly," he said. "I was trying to battle. I didn't really see the first couple of pitches very well. I had a better read on [Maronde's] fastball by then and he ended up kind of grooving one down the middle, probably by mistake."

Higashioka has 11 homer and 50 RBIs in 51 games with Trenton and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Both already are his best totals since the Yankees selected him in the seventh round of the 2008 Draft.

The 2015 Florida State League All-Star also said his 13-game stint with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre from May 27-June 13 has provided some extra motivation. Since returning to the Eastern League, he's 8-for-21 with four homers and 14 RBIs in six games.

"For sure. I mean, I want to play at the highest level possible," he said. "Wherever I'm at, I'm just going to keep trying to produce and keep trying to swing it well."

Yankees No. 15 prospect Miguel Andujar went 2-for-4 and scored twice for the Thunder, collecting multiple hits for the sixth time in seven games. Michael O'Neill added his first Double-A homer, a two-run shot in the fourth.

Caleb Smith (1-2) started for Trenton and yielded two hits and a walk while striking out five over five scoreless frames. Making his Double-A debut, Nestor Cortes gave up two runs on a hit and two walks but fanned five over the final four innings for the save.

Merryweather (0-1) surrendered nine runs on 10 hits with three strikeouts in four innings for Akron, which got a two-run homer from second-ranked Indians prospect Clint Frazier.