D-backs farmhand goes deep in five straight at-bats
Double-A Mobile 1B Griffin follows up four-homer game with another big fly
D-backs Minor Leaguer Jon Griffin enjoyed an offensive outburst for the record books on Wednesday night, crushing homers in four straight at-bats in a seven-RBI performance for Double-A Mobile in a 17-7 win over the Tennessee Smokies.
And Griffin didn't stop there.
Griffin followed up that performance by going deep in his first at-bat of Thursday's 6-5 loss to Tennessee. Griffin launched a solo shot, his 10th of the season, to center field. It was his fifth homer in as many at-bats and his sixth in four games, as he also went yard Monday.
Griffin went deep in the fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth innings on Wednesday night, finishing 5-for-6 with two solo shots, a two-run homer and a three-run homer on the night. He might have driven in more runs, but the batter in front of him -- left fielder David Peralta -- went 3-for-5 with a double, home run and five RBIs of his own.
Griffin's four-homer performance was only the second such game in Southern League history, according to the Smokies' media-relations department. The last four-homer game in the Southern League came from George Kalafatis on July 1, 1969, for Montgomery.
Entering Wednesday night's game, the 25-year-old first baseman was hitting .261/.351/.425 with five homers and 20 RBIs in 39 games.
Griffin isn't ranked on the D-backs' Top 20 Prospects list. The D-backs drafted the 6-foot-6, 230-pound Griffin out of the University of Central Florida in the 21st round in 2011.
Playing for Class A Advanced Visalia and Mobile last year, Griffin hit .259/.312/.389 with 10 homers and 62 RBIs in 103 games. However, he hit .304/.366/.523 in 133 games for the Rawhide and BayBears in 2012 after an impressive professional debut for Rookie-level Missoula in 2011.