Multihit Marcelo: Mayer smacks 2nd HR of year in 4-hit night
Marcelo Mayer seems to be putting the "May" into his surname. Or vice versa.
Even though the No. 7 overall prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline has played just two games since the calendar turned, he's got six hits across them for High-A Greenville. And Wednesday's output -- matching a career high with four hits -- was twice as good as Tuesday's.
Mayer clubbed a two-run tater, a pair of doubles and a single, plating three runs and scoring twice en route to the Drive's 10-6 win over the host Tourists.
“I think I’ve progressed pretty well,” he said. “I made a few adjustments. Obviously, I started off slow and I’m starting to play much better now. I’m swinging at better pitches, not getting too pull-happy and staying to the big part of the field, which has helped.”
The big fly came in the seventh inning off right-handed reliever Kasey Ford, plating No. 20 Red Sox prospect Chase Meidroth.
Mayer put his play-by-play skills to the test in describing his second homer of the year.
“So, 2-0 count, saw two changeups out and then ambushed a heater, hit it out to left-center field,” the 20-year-old said. “I stayed to the big part of the field, so I stuck to my approach really well in that at bat.”
The jack was the final hit of the night for the top Red Sox prospect, leaving him a triple short of the cycle. Mayer said he almost tried to stretch one of his doubles into a three-bagger earlier in the game.
“My second double, I did, but I would have been thrown out by a mile,” Mayer said.
That fifth-inning double was a line drive to center off Valente Bellozo that knocked in Meidroth for Mayer's first RBI of the day. The fourth overall pick in the 2021 Draft also roped a two-bagger to center in his first at-bat against the righty.
With an additional single to right in the second, Mayer matched the career high of four hits he originally posted for Single-A Salem on April 21, 2022.
With last season's four-hit game occurring at home, Mayer got to hear the cheers of the crowd rooting him on. In Asheville, it was a bit of a different cheering squad for “Doggies at the Diamond” night.
“I love dogs,” he said. “It was pretty funny because they played a doorbell and all of the dogs started going crazy.”
Mayer has three dogs -- a Toy Poodle, a German Shepherd/Boxer mix and a Maltese -- back home in California, so that made the night at the ballpark extra special by his personal standards.
And by the professional ones too. Mayer raised his average 39 points to .299, improving his OPS to .881.