Cozens homers three times to reach 30

Phillies' No. 7 prospect adds triple in 4-for-5, seven-RBI outburst

August 4th, 2016

Dylan Cozens' slump is over.
The Phillies' No. 7 prospect had been struggling to put the ball in play over the past few games, but he quelled any concerns with an offensive explosion in Double-A Reading's 13-0 win over Bowie.
Cozens hit a trio of home runs, as well as a triple, as part of a 4-for-5, seven-RBI game. The three round trippers gives Cozens 30 on the year, good for second in the Minors.
"Pretty happy to be honest," Cozens told MiLB.com. "When you homer in your first at-bat, it's usually [going to] be a good day no matter what, especially if you get the win as well. I just consistently put the bat on the ball today and made hard contact. It just happened to turn it into three homers and a triple."

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In his previous four games, Cozens saw his breakout season derailed a bit as he struck out 11 times and went just 3-for-16 at the plate.
That changed immediately on Wednesday. The 22-year-old hit a two-run homer in the first inning, a solo blast in the third and a three-run homer in the seventh inning. And to cap it all off, he drove in two more with a triple in the eighth.
While Cozens was certainly the catalyst for Reading's offense, he wasn't the only contributor. Rhys Hoskins (Phillies' No. 30) followed up Cozens' third-inning homer with a blast of his own, giving him 31 homers on the year to narrowly hold onto the Minor League lead.
Minor League home run leaders
Cozens' trio of homers brought his own total to 30, and he and Hoskins became the first Eastern League teammates to each hit 30 homers in a season since 1981.
"That's a big reason we're doing so well as a team," Cozens told MiLB.com. "Teams sometimes, they just gotta pick which one they want to come after. Sometimes we both make them pay, or one of us makes them pay. A big bat like that in the lineup besides me, it's a lot of fun."
Both the seven RBIs and the three home runs mark career bests for Cozens, who hit two homers and drove in six runs on June 11.
Cozens also became the first Reading player to have seven RBIs in a game since J.P. Roberge did so on July 20, 2001.
After hitting 38 total homers through the first four seasons of his professional career, Cozens has found his power stroke in 2016, his first season at Double-A.
Through 103 games, Cozens has set career-high in doubles (32), homers (30) and RBIs (96).