A's Smolinski collects five hits, five RBIs

Whether it happens in Little League or professional baseball, collecting five hits in one game never fails to impress.
That also holds true for a veteran of 199 Major League games like Jake Smolinski, who reacquainted himself with Class A Advanced competition for the first time in nearly seven years and left a lasting impression in just his second game of the season.

The Oakland outfielder homered and finished 5-for-5 with five RBIs as Stockton powered past Visalia, 10-1, on Sunday night at Banner Island Ballpark. Smolinski's five hits matched a career high.
The 28-year-old was making his second rehab appearance with the Ports following offseason surgery on his right shoulder that kept him out of action all year. He went 0-for-2 with a walk and a run scored Saturday.
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"I'm just trying to keep things simple up there," Smolinski said. "I'm getting back into the flow of the game little by little and just having fun with the guys. It's great to be out there playing baseball again after a pretty long layoff. I'm getting my work done off the field and then really concentrating on my hitting and making adjustments during the game, pitch by pitch."
Serving as the designated hitter, the Rockford, Illinois native picked up his first hit of the year on a single to left field in the first inning. He drove in two runs with a bases-loaded double to center in the second and scored later during Stockton's seven-run frame. He cracked his first home run over the fence in left-center field in his next at-bat, a three-run blast. Needing a triple to complete the cycle, Smolinski singled to center in the fifth and to left in the seventh for his first five-hit game since Aug. 22, 2009 with Class A Greensboro in the South Atlantic League.
"It's a process getting back into the flow," said Smolinski, who fell one RBI shy of the career-high six he set in 2015. "I'm still not able to throw at full strength, but I have been able to hit for over a month in the cage and during batting practice. From there, it's just bringing that into games and getting used to the speed of things. But it's obviously different during a game. That's something you can't replicate and you need to go through in order to get the feel back. So I just need to slow things down, recall past memories while I'm out there and continue to get used to the speed of things." 

Selected by the Nationals in the second round of the 2007 Draft, Smolinski played for parts of eight seasons in the Minors before making his Major League debut with the Rangers on April 7, 2014. He compiled a slash line of .242/.307/.378 with 16 homers in 199 games as a big leaguer. This was his first appearance at the Class A Advanced level since Sept. 5, 2010 with Jupiter in the Florida State League.
"It's nice to be back [in the Minors] in a way. I've been having a great time with the guys here," Smolinski said. "Sometimes you forget about what it's like when you're not a part of it anymore. There are a lot of good and positive things I can take out of being around them. Hopefully I can share some of the things I've learned with them and they can do the same for me.
"At this point, I'm just taking things day by day. It's the organization's call about what they want me to do next. So for now, I'll just take it one day at a time and get a little better each day."
Argenis Raga contributed an RBI double and a single during the Ports' seven-run inning, which started with Mikey White's 14th home run of the season.
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Starter Logan Shore (2-5) scattered three hits and three walks while matching a season high with seven strikeouts over five scoreless innings. The eighth-ranked A's prospect, who spent six weeks on the disabled list, won for the first time since April 29.
Mark Karaviotis hit his second home run of the season for Visalia.