Colson Montgomery entered Thursday's game against Toledo with three hits in his last 30 plate appearances.
He matched that in four trips to the plate against the Mud Hens, including his eighth and ninth homers of the season in Charlotte's 12-9 victory at Fifth Third Field.
The first one came on a rolling 78 mph curveball that Montgomery launched well over the right field wall...
... while the second one was a floating slider that Montgomery drove out, just left of center.
That was Montgomery's first homer against a lefty this year, although he came into the game with only 38 plate appearances against southpaws all year. It also continued a strange streak, as the last three games in which Montgomery went deep turned into multi-homer games.
The key is what happens from here, because he struggled to come up with anything resembling an encore the other two times. When he went 4-for-4 with a pair of homers against Round Rock on May 24, he followed it by going 1-for-19 over his next six games. When he snapped out of that slump with two homers against Lehigh Valley on June 5, he went 6-for-39 with 18 strikeouts over his next 10 games.
Charlotte 12, Toledo 9
- Brooks Baldwin went 2-for-5 with two strikeouts and a stolen base.
- Colson Montgomery lives: 3-for-4 with a homer, walk and strikeout.
- Tim Elko was 1-for-5 with a double, two strikeouts and a stolen base.
- Dru Baker was 2-for-5 with a double and a strikeout.
- Mike Clevinger: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 47 of 76 pitches for strikes.
- Nick Nastrini is back, kinda: 0.1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HR, 1 WP, 7 of 18 pitches for strikes.
- Jairo Iriarte: 1 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP, 15 of 26 pitches for strikes.
Knoxville 9, Birmingham 3
- Rikuu Nishida went 1-for-3 with two walks.
- Ryan Galanie was 1-for-4 with a sac fly and a K.
- Jacob Gonzalez, 0-for-5.
- DJ Gladney went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Jake Palisch: 3 IP, 9 H, 9 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HR
Kannapolis 7, Fredericksburg 3 (11 innings)
- Ryan Burrowes went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, an HBP and a stolen base.
- Javier Mogollón went 0-for-5 with a K, and was caught stealing.
- Ronny Hernandez went 0-for-3 with a walk.
- Lyle Miller-Green went 1-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- George Wolkow was 0-for-2.
- Abraham Nuñez, 1-for-5 with a double and a strikeout, and 1-for-2 on the basepaths.
- Justin Sinibaldi with the season's most efficient start: 8 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 53 of 79 pitches for strikes.
ACL White Sox 7, ACL Padres 3 (7 innings)
- Adrian Gíl tripled, doubled, walked and was hit by a pitch.
- Jurdrick Profar singled, walked and struck out twice.
DSL White Sox 2, DSL Tigers1 0 (7 innings)
- Christian Gonzalez went 2-for-2.
- Frank Mieses was 1-for-3 with a strikeout.
- Eduardo Herrera, 1-for-3.
- Yordani Soto went 1-for-3 with a strikeout and a stolen base.
- Yobal Rodríguez: 3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K
- Diego Perez: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K
