Then again, who needs pitching when you can just pummel the opposition into submission with offense.
Justin Banks (.313/.332/.469), who is in his first year with the Brewers having come over in a trade which sent Russell Fleming to the Oklahoma City Diamond Kings in the off-season, is having a fine season and is on pace for 4.0 WAR, led the way in this one. Fellow first year infielder
Ryan Campbell, who the Brewers acquired from San Antonio when they sent top pitching prospect Mike Costa (who is 9-13 with a 5.91 ERA) to the Keys, also was a key contributor.
Campbell (.328/.424/.493) got off to a disappointing start, and has committed 25 errors at third base with a -1.7 ZR, but has been picking things up offensively since the All-Star break and is on pace for a 5.8 WAR season. He is still underachieving in terms of the power bat, considering he is our primary clean-up hitter and was expected to be the best home run hitter on the club. But with his 6 RBI in yesterday's win he is second best on the team in that category, 1 behind the surprising star
Chris Romines.
The Brewers did bring up first base prospect
Gene "Basher" Brasher recently and
Brasher profiles as the best power hitter on the club now, though he has yet to collect his first big league dinger. He will likely be the primary backup for
Romines next season and provide a power right-handed bat off the bench (the feeling is that team Captain
Ben Flynn likely won't be back to fulfill that role next season).
Both
Banks and
Campbell recently signed 1-year extensions to return to the Brewers next season. For
Banks it was his last year of arbitration and he signed for a steep $940 K deal. With several strong second base prospects in the Brewers system (one of them,
Marty Crumbley is having a great season with the big league club in limited action and looks like a next-level contact hitter), it is expected that next season might be
Banks last in a Brewers uniform but he certainly earned a return and can help bridge to the next starter at the position.
Campbell, meanwhile, still has 2 years of arbitration eligibility and he signed to a very modest $472 K contract for 1986. The 30-year old star third baseman will likely remain with the team at least for a few more seasons with top third base prospect
Jeremy Beeson (another potential elite contact hitter, like
Crumbley) likely still a few years away from being ready to take over.
Speaking of offensive outbursts and impressive hitting, Washington's rookie left fielder/first baseman (actually, he has mostly played first but he also has played a bit this season at second base, third base, shortstop, left field, and center field!) Donovan Hickson had a 4-homer day yesterday in the midst of what may end up being an MVP season for the 25-year old power/speed threat. Hickson is on pace for an 8.2 WAR season, as he has already hit 35 home runs, driven in 95 runs, walked 99 times, stolen 21 bases (while being caught 5 times), while providing adequate defense at multiple positions. (Ultimately, he is likely a first baseman, but an elite one!) His contact hitting tool is considered great and he will strike out a ton, but he walks even more, and hits the ball so hard and when combined with his plus speed and plus plus base stealing and base running savvy, it isn't likely to hold him back from being one of the premiere players in the game. Oh, and he's a flyball hitter with the best home run power bat in the game this side of one-dimensional slugger Toby Noguchi. And he's a very hard worker and projects as being durable. Multiple MVP's might be expected for this kid in the future and he's just another reason that the big-budget and talented Washington Night Train might be building a dynasty over in the SJL East.
Oh, and this is just the 3rd time a player has hit 4 homers in a single game. The first one was by Denver Brewer second baseman Tanner Yurek on May 4th of 1965 (Yurek also had a 3-homer game in 1967), and the other was Boston's first baseman Kyle Adams who did this on September 13th of 1982.