Globe iconLogin iconRecap iconSearch iconTickets icon

Brown homers in fifth straight game for Ports

Athletics slugger bashes solo shot for 25th long ball of season
Seth Brown totaled 11 homers in his first two Minor League seasons in 2015 and 2016. (Meghan Camino/Stockton Ports)
August 25, 2017

With each passing day, Seth Brown has been perfecting his home run trot for the Class A Advanced Ports.The Oakland slugger went deep for the fifth consecutive game as Stockton snatched a 2-1 victory in 11 innings over Modesto at Banner Island Ballpark. The homer was Brown's only hit in

With each passing day, Seth Brown has been perfecting his home run trot for the Class A Advanced Ports.
The Oakland slugger went deep for the fifth consecutive game as Stockton snatched a 2-1 victory in 11 innings over Modesto at Banner Island Ballpark. The homer was Brown's only hit in five trips to the plate.

"It's just kind of an unreal experience," said Brown, who is batting .261 with 25 homers and 91 RBIs, both career highs. "It's definitely fun and I'm just trying to enjoy the ride." 
Gameday box score
The 25-year-old is wrapping up his second full season in the California League after batting .241/.340/.362 with eight homers, 83 runs scored and 53 RBIs last year. Brown said mechanical and mental adjustments have led to the remarkable turnaround, particularly in the power department.
"Something you never want to do is repeat a level. Learning to understand that every day you get out here is just a day to get better," the Klamath Falls, Oregon native said. "Let a bad day be a bad day. The more you dwell on those things, it can just turn into a downward spiral and that's something that you want to avoid. It's being able to let go of a bad game."
The mechanical adjustments were the brainchild of his father, who remembered what brought the 2015 19th-round pick all of his success in college at Lewis-Clark State.
"Last year, I had my hands up and it was just hard to get consistent with a good swing path," Brown said. "Ever since I dropped my hands back to where they were in college, it's brought me back to a consistent path every time."
The home run binge has been part of a hot streak that's punctuated his most successful year at the plate. Over his last five games, Brown has gone 11-for-21 with 11 RBIs and six runs scored. 

"Going back to what I'm comfortable with and what got me really locked in -- it's just turned everything around for me," the lefty-swinging Brown said. "Being consistent is a huge thing for me and that's something I'm happy to see happen."
Leading off the second inning against Spencer Herrmann, the 6-foot-3, 220-pounder took a first-pitch fastball off the outside edge before barreling up a changeup left up and out over the plate and sending it beyond the fence in right-center field. 
"Once I hit it, I knew it and it felt great," Brown said. "I had an idea of what he looks like and what he's coming with. He usually throws me away. At that point, going 1-0 in the count, I'm just looking for something up that I can drive."
Get tickets to a Ports game »
Brown struck out in his next three at-bats and lined back to reliever Marvin Gorgas for the final out in the 10th. Branden Cogswell delivered the walk-off run for Stockton with a one-out double that plated Luis Barrera.
Oakland's No. 8 prospectLogan Shore allowed one run on six hits and a walk with seven strikeouts in seven innings for Stockton. 

Gerard Gilberto is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow and interact with him on Twitter, @GerardGilberto4.