The beauty of baseball is it affords even the best of the best an opportunity to do something unique. For Trey Sweeney, that came in the second inning on Wednesday night at Isotopes Park.
The Dodgers' No. 21 prospect kicked off a career-best performance with something he hadn't done since his Little League days, and the evening only got better from there. A second-inning inside-the-park home run was the first of three roundtrippers on the evening for Sweeney, whose four hits and five RBIs led Triple-A Oklahoma City to a 6-1 win over Albuquerque.
The three jacks marked the first multihomer game as a professional for Sweeney, who had to take a trip back in time to his youth in Louisville, Ky., to recall his first inside-the-parker.
"Yeah, it's been a long time since I hit one of those," Sweeney said. "I figured I worked so hard to get the first one that I'd just go the easier route for the next two."
The lefty-swinging shortstop's 409-foot drive off the center-field wall eluded a leaping Sam Hilliard (Rockies) and caromed toward right field, enabling Sweeney to race around the bases and score without a throw. The 6-foot-3, 212-pounder wasn't sure he got enough of it to get over Hilliard's head, but he didn't take any chances.
"When I first hit it, I knew I got a hold of it good," Sweeney explained. "But I also thought he might track it down. Center field here is a long ways away [428 feet]. I was hitting second when I noticed it kicked away and sort of rolled into no-man's land and that's when I realized I had a good shot at [the inside-the-park home run]."
Sweeney's second jack was more traditional. The 2021 20th overall pick by the Yankees smoked a 420-foot drive over the wall in left-center field for a two-run homer in his next at-bat in the fourth. A single in the sixth set him up for one final chance at the homer trifecta, which he wasted no time in accomplishing with a first-pitch tater to center.
Sweeney went the more traditional route for his second jack, which came in his next at-bat in the fourth when he smoked a 420-foot drive over the left-center-field wall for a two-run homer. A single in the sixth set him up for one final chance at the homer trifecta, which he wasted no time in accomplishing with a first-pitch tater over to center.
"I'd be lying if I said it didn't cross my mind, but no, I wasn't trying to hit one out there," Sweeney said. "In that situation, I was just trying to have a good at-bat and barrel one up. I was able to lift it and sort of let the elevation here do its thing to help me."
Sweeney's four hits and five RBIs both equaled career highs and continued a scorching stretch for the 24-year-old, who has left the yard five times since last Friday, a span of four games and 14 at-bats. He entered that game with two long balls in his previous 44 games and 185 at-bats.
"Just making some small adjustments," Sweeney said about his recent uptick. "I was missing a lot of hittable pitches early on and swinging at pitches I should not have been. I just wasn't seeing the ball really well. It's all about finding something you're confident and comfortable with and I've done that recently."
