Walding hits the jackpot for IronPigs

A recent reassignment to Triple-A Lehigh Valley gave Mitch Walding a chance to push the reset button after a rough start to his Major League tenure. The 25-year-old went hitless in his first 14 at-bats with the Phillies, striking out 10 times, but was confident that his window is far from closing.
"I don't think the Phillies are judging me off a handful of at-bats," he said. "I think they know that I'm a good player. ... One day, I will be back and do some more things there. It's just a matter of time."
Walding ensured that his clock may move a little quicker with his performance in Saturday's doubleheader at Coca-Cola Park. He homered twice and drove in six runs in the opener and added another long ball and four RBIs in the nightcap as the IronPigs took both games against Columbus.

"It was a crazy one. One thing happened after the other," he said. "You kind of don't really see it coming. ... It's a crazy feeling, but it was definitely a special day." 
The six RBIs matched his career high, a mark he set with Class A Short Season Williamsport on June 22, 2012 in his first year as a pro.
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound first baseman finished the day with 18 homers, putting him in a tie with teammate Dylan Cozens -- the Phillies' 16th-ranked prospect -- for the International League lead. His effort in the opener marked his third multi-homer game this season and seventh in a six-year professional career.

Walding's monster evening bumped his Triple-A batting average to .270 and his RBI total to 55, which ranks sixth in the IL. He was sent back to the Minors on Thursday and went 0-for-4 with a walk and a run scored a night later. After scoring a pair of runs in each game Saturday, the Lodi, California, native moved into a tie with Gwinnett's Rio Ruiz for second on the circuit with 57.
In Lehigh Valley's 8-5 victory in Game 1, Walding struck out in his first appearance after committing an error at third base that set up Indians No. 7 prospectYu Chang second career grand slam. Collin Cowgill got the IronPigs on the board with an RBI double in the third and Walding cleared the bases with his first three-run homer, taking starter Shao-Ching Chiang out to the opposite field in left.
The 2011 fifth-rounder smacked the second of three successive singles to start the fifth against Chiang and was forced at the plate after Nick Rickles bounced to first. Following Ryan Goins' walk and another hit by Cowgill with one out in the sixth, Walding again took to the long ball, lifting a big fly over the center field fence to put the IronPigs in front for good.
"I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit," he said. "I had a pretty good idea that I was probably getting a heater in that count and it was just, 'Hey, be on time, get the ball a little elevated and put a good swing on it.'"
Game 1 box score
The go-ahead homer was estimated to travel 468 feet, one foot shy of Cozens' club record and five feet off the Coca-Cola Park record set by Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's Tyler Austin last Sept. 4. Walding said he was not aware of the record but knew it was a homer off the bat.
"It's definitely a different feeling when you hit a ball like that, that's for sure," he said.
After recording his first four-hit game since June 28, 2013 with Salt Lake, the 32-year-old Cowgill did not play in the nightcap.
The second contest was another power show by Lehigh Valley, this time with help from Cozens in a 10-5 triumph. The 24-year-old went deep twice and drove in four runs in his fifth multi-homer game of the season. Like Walding, Cozens also struggled after debuting with the Phillies this year, collecting only two hits, including his first homer, in 18 big league at-bats.
"I think he believes he has a chance to get back there as well and do big things," Walding said. "I think when you go up it's just trying to find a way to slow the game down a little bit because obviously there's a lot of anxiousness. ... We both talked about just preparing ourselves to the best ability and let be what will be."

Dean Anna doubled and Aaron Altherr walked to start the first before Walding went deep to center again for his third three-run homer of the day. Cozens put the IronPigs up, 5-0, with a two-run shot two batters later.
Following Altherr's one-out double in the second, Walding jumped on the first offering from Columbus starter Myles Jaye and put it beyond the reach of center fielder Brandon Barnes for an RBI double. He scored on Joey Meneses' single ahead of Cozens' second roundtripper.
Walding walked in the fourth before the Clippers found an unexpected antidote in his final at-bat in the fifth, but not without a brief scare. With two outs and the bases loaded, Columbus put catcher Rob Brantly on the hill to face Walding, who narrowly missed a 14-RBI day after pulling a would-be homer wide of the right field foul pole on a 1-1 pitch.
"It was just get a pitch and hit it hard kind of thing. You don't really think of hitting a homer. You obviously know that the oppotunity is there, especially after the kind of day I was having," said Walding, who eventually grounded out to second. "Some of the guys were razzing me a little bit. Everyone on the bench was kind of laughing."