Dragons' Trammell breathing fire at plate

After struggling through a tough April in his full-season debut, Reds No. 3 prospectTaylor Trammell received some words of advice from fifth-ranked Jesse Winker, who's now thriving in the Majors.
"He pretty much told me that every good at-bat you have, take that and let that be something you can hold onto," Trammell said. "Say you'd go 1-for-4 with four really good at-bats, it's like you went 4-for-4. It's just something that helps with your mentality and how you go about the game."
Trammell continued his post-April resurgence in Class A Dayton's 12-0 shellacking of Bowling Green at Fifth Third Field on Tuesday. He homered, tripled and drove in a career-high five runs during his second consecutive two-hit game.

After striking out and popping out to second base in his first two at-bats against Hot Rods left-hander Kenny Rosenberg, Trammell came to the plate with one out and men on first and third in the fifth. He ripped Rosenberg's first pitch to center for a triple, scoring Carlos Rivero and Reds No. 23 prospect Jose Siri before crossing home plate on a throwing error by Bowling Green shortstop Luis Rengifo to open up a 7-0 lead.
"Just [looking for] something I could handle," Trammell said "My first two at-bats I struggled a little bit. ... He made great pitches that I didn't like. Just got a ball I could handle, it stayed up and I got the right pitch at the right time."

Rosenberg's night was done two batters after Trammell's at-bat, so the 19-year-old outfielder then victimized right-hander Jayson McKinley with a three-run homer to right-center on a 1-2 pitch in the sixth to give Dayton an 11-0 advantage. In the process, he topped his previous career high of four RBIs, set July 10 against South Bend.
"I saw his fastball early on in the count and then he threw me a changeup," Trammell said. "After the change, I pretty much just told myself to stay short, don't try to do too much and get these runs in. Then he threw me a changeup that stayed up. I just stayed short to the ball and handled it really well."
Gameday box score
Since batting .222/.312/.309 with one homer and nine RBIs in 21 contests in April, Trammell has handled Midwest League pitching extremely well, posting a .296/.379/.478 slash line with 11 homers, 64 RBIs and 30 stolen bases over 98 games. He hit two homers in 61 games for Rookie-level Billings after getting drafted 35th overall in 2016 and has seen a big uptick in his power numbers this season.
"I just worked out in the offseason," Trammell said. "Didn't do anything special, just getting a lot more balls elevated. Last year, I had a lot more line drives, this year, I'm guiding the ball better than I was. I think it was just working out in the offseason, development and seeing the ball better than I did last year."

Lost in Dayton's offensive barrage was a sharp start by Reds No. 14 prospect Tony Santillan (8-7), who allowed one hit without a walk whiile striking out four in five innings. The right-hander was relieved by Alex Webb, who gave up one hit and whiffed three batters over the final four frames to complete the two-hitter.

"Phenomenal pitching effort between Tony Santillan and Alex Webb," Trammell said. "Although a lot of guys had big nights at the plate, it really helps when we have a two-hitter. Both sides of the game with pitching and hitting clicked.
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"The best way I can describe it is you're seeing your pitcher go out there and battle his tail off, every pitch and every batter. It does something to a team -- this guy is putting himself out there, we better do the same. You want to do as much as possible and put him in the best situation to help him out. We all have the same goal and that's to win. Whatever we can do to help each other out and help each other win, were going to do it."
Dragons third baseman Taylor Sparks went yard and drove in two runs and Malik Collymore added two RBIs.