Drew hits two: Gilbert records first pro multihomer game
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Consider it an achievement unlocked for Gillygoobear. .
Who's that? Well, that's the moniker Drew Gilbert uses for his Twitter and Instagram handles, a nickname he created in 2015 when choosing a gamertag for his Xbox.
The top Astros prospect has come a long way since then. On Tuesday night, Gilbert slugged two homers in High-A Asheville's 14-7 win over Bowling Green. They were both no-doubters, and marked the first time in his career that he went yard twice in the same game.
It was something of a feat for a 22-year-old who doesn't consider himself a home run hitter.
“It was cool,” he said. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s my game, but I was able to get a couple nice ABs.”
After flying out to right field in the first inning, Gilbert stepped up to the plate in the fourth and got every stitch of right-hander JJ Goss’ 3-2 pitch, sending a towering drive over the wall in right-center at Bowling Green Ballpark.
The moonshot closed the Tourists' deficit on the Hot Rods to 3-2.
By the time the 28th pick in the 2022 Draft reached the dish again in the fifth, Goss -- the No. 20 Rays prospect -- had been relieved by Sandy Gaston, and the righty plunked Gilbert with a pitch.
But the 22-year-old outfielder took a measure of revenge in the sixth against righty Kyle Whitten, crushing another moonshot, this time to left field, that extended the Tourists' lead to 12-3.
Gilbert has been off to a scorching hot start for Asheville, compiling a slash line of .356/.420/.533, after his 2022 campaign was cut short 10 games into the season when he dislocated his right elbow running into an outfield wall.
The injury kept Gilbert out until this spring, but ultimately it has not seemed to slow him down at all.
“It's just good to be back playing against some different teams again,” he said. “It's definitely an adjustment going from college to pro ball. Whether it's Low-A or High-A, it's better competition. So that’s been a big adjustment, but you try to make those adjustments as quick as possible and you have the opportunity to do that every single day.”
At Tennessee, you could count on seeing Gilbert and teammate Liam Spence, a member of the Cubs organization, rocking wild eye-black designs.
Think of the eye black Bryce Harper sported in his rookie season, the classic backward seven design, then turn the thickness up to 1,000. Gilbert donned the look at Single-A Fayetteville last season, and while he has yet to employ the same face paint on the Tourists, he said you never know.
“We won the first day we tried it by a pretty good amount so we were like, 'All right, might as well keep doing it,'” Gilbert said. “I think every time we put it on, we got a little more eye black, so it probably got a little bit excessive. So probably not going to do it like that for a while. But we’ll see.”
Playing the game and having fun while doing it are essential components to Gilbert's personality and his game.
“[My teammates] probably say I’m crazy, and I probably wouldn’t disagree with them,” he laughed.