Hilo native Kolten Wong has been looking for something to get him out of a recent hitting funk. Maybe swatting a ball out of the ballpark can change his recent fortunes.
Wong drilled a home run in his first at-bat Saturday and drove in three runs to help guide the Memphis Redbirds to a 7-2 victory over the Nashville Sounds.
Prior to Saturday’s game, Wong was hitting .218 (7-for-32) in his last ten games with an RBI and had a stretch of four consecutive games bridging June and July without a hit. Earlier in the season, the Kamehameha-Hawai`i graduate racked up an 11-game htting streak in the month of may.
After grounding out in his initial at-bat Saturday, Wong drilled his first home run in 22 games over the right field fence to give the Redbirds a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning. The home run was Wong’s sixth of the season.
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That would be the only hit the third-year pro would collect on the day, but he still found ways to produce. In the fifth inning, Wong reached on an error by Nashville shortstop Ozzie Chavez. He was credited with an RBI as Adron Chambers scored on the play to give the St. Louis Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate a 4-1 lead over the Sounds.
In the very next inning, Wong grounded out to Chavez at shortstop, scoring Chambers to cap a three-run sixth inning. The Redbirds took a commanding 7-1 lead following Wong’s third run batted in of the evening.
The former Unviersity of Hawai`i standout enters Sunday’s game with a .304 batting average. He has six home runs, 28 runs batted in, and 11 stolen bases on the season.
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