Fightins' Kingery goes yard twice ... again
Please don't call Scott Kingery, the Eastern League's home run leader, a power hitter. "Everyone keeps asking me if I'm a home run hitter and I keep telling them no," Kingery said after slugging his 12th and 13th homers in Double-A Reading's 8-7 loss to visiting New Hampshire on Sunday. "I'm
Please don't call
"Everyone keeps asking me if I'm a home run hitter and I keep telling them no," Kingery said after slugging his 12th and 13th homers in Double-A Reading's 8-7 loss to visiting New Hampshire on Sunday. "I'm honestly just trying to put a good, line drive swing on the ball and for some reason I'm hitting them in the air and they're getting some carry on them. For me, it's not about hitting home runs, but they just happen to be going out right now."
It was the second time in three games that the Phillies' No. 11 prospect has homered twice, giving him six in his last seven contests.
"I don't think I've ever had more home runs than stolen bases at any point in my career," Kingery said with a laugh. "I wasn't thinking about home runs coming into the season and I'm still not thinking about home runs."
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Kingery got aboard on an infield single in his first at-bat and scored on a two-run homer by Phillies No. 27 prospect Malquin Canelo. He reached on a bunt single in the fifth, which is more in line with his approach as a leadoff hitter.
"For me, as I move up levels, I'm still going to be a gap guy, just trying to find space and hit doubles or hit singles and find a way into scoring position. But I'm not complaining about how things are going right now," he said.
In the seventh, Kingery worked the count full against reliever
"It was a full count and I just wanted to put it in play," the 2015 second-round pick said. "He threw me a fastball and I was able to connect. It was more of a liner, but the ballpark definitely helped me out on that one."
FirstEnergy Stadium has the reputation of being a hitter's haven, but Kingery also has five homers on the road. He went deep for another solo shot in the ninth, this time to left-center, to move atop the Eastern League leaderboard. In fact, he's hit so many long balls lately that the dugout barely reacts when he leaves the yard.
"My teammates told me today that I'm on [Reading left fielder]
So how did Kingery, who stands 5-foot-10 and hit eight homers in 197 Minor League games entering the season, suddenly become a power threat? He made an offseason adjustment to help him stay back, but he wasn't expecting it to pay off in this fashion.
"I made a few adjustments in the offseason to stay on my back leg more," the University of Arizona product said. "Last season, I was doing a lot of drifting forward and getting off balance and lunging at balls. Staying back on my back leg gives me a chance to get some good swings on off-speed pitches."
In addition to the 13 homers, Kingery has a .289/.366/.651 slash line, four triples, eight doubles and 27 RBIs. And he's stolen nine bases without getting caught.
Blue Jays No. 4 prospect
Michael Leboff is a contributor to MiLB.com.