SAN DIEGO -- Franmil Reyes is making a statement. It's about as loud as the homers he hits.
There's no obvious long-term place in the Padres' outfield for the 23-year-old. But there certainly will be if he stays red-hot like he is right now.
In Monday night's 6-2 Padres victory over Arizona, Reyes crushed home runs in each of his first two at-bats against D-backs starter Zack Godley. It's his first career two-homer game, and Reyes is now hitting .407 with six homers during his nine-game hitting streak.
"He's smart, he understands the game, he thinks the game," Padres manager Andy Green said. "He's going to continue to grow because of that. He's hungry to be a great hitter."
The Padres put two men aboard in the second inning when Godley tried to come inside on Reyes with a fastball. Reyes inside-outed the ball and still cleared the right-center field fence.
"He still muscles it out to right-center," said Green. "There's not a lot of guys that can do that. When you can mis-hit balls out of the ballpark, you start to get in a category with very few hitters in the big leagues."
Reyes offered a sheepish grin when asked how he managed to get that particular pitch out of the yard to that part of the park.
"You guys cannot be surprised," he said. "You know my power."
In the fourth, Godley hung a 3-2 curveball that Reyes sent over the left-center-field fence. He has 15 homers this season for the Padres, on top of the 16 he hit for Triple-A El Paso.
Perhaps equally impressive was the 2-2 curveball that Reyes laid off, which ended up just off the plate. Reyes noted that he'd dissected film on Godley and expected the curve in that spot, enabling him to take. (Sitting curveball is also why Reyes went to the opposite field with Godley's second-inning fastball.)
Reyes' surge coincides with a similar hot streak for Hunter Renfroe, who has seemingly solidified his place in the Padres' outfield. With William Myers, Manuel Margot, Franchy Cordero and Travis Jankowski also serving as long-term outfield options, Reyes is going to have to earn every bit of playing time he gets.
Right now, he's doing precisely that.