Cole Young just continues to rake.
The highly touted Seattle Mariners prospect blasted a 458-foot home run and finished a single shy of the cycle in Triple-A Tacoma’s 15-14 extra-inning loss to Albuquerque on Friday night. It came after Young hit a 441-foot homer against Albuquerque the night before.
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Young, a 2022 first-round draft pick, began Friday’s game with a first-inning triple that took a favorable bounce off the right-field wall. In the second inning, he hit an RBI double off the left-center-field wall. And in the fourth inning, he obliterated a three-run homer to right-center field that sailed deep into the New Mexico evening sky.
Young then got four more chances to complete the cycle, but he popped out in the fifth inning, struck out in the eighth, struck out in the 10th and grounded out in the 12th. The 21-year-old second baseman finished 3 for 7 with a homer, a triple, a double and four RBIs in the 12-inning marathon.
Young had a rough first month of the season, but has been on an absolute tear since the calendar flipped to May. Over his past 12 games, he’s batting .426 with four homers, two triples, five doubles and a 1.381 OPS. He was named the Pacific Coast League Player of the Week for May 5-11 and could be in the mix for the honor again this week.
For the season, Young is slashing .248/.360/.422 with four homers, four triples, eight doubles and a .782 OPS in 42 games with Triple-A Tacoma. MLB Pipeline ranks him as the sport’s No. 43 overall prospect and the No. 3 prospect in Seattle’s system, while Baseball America tabs him as the No. 52 overall prospect and the No. 2 prospect the Mariners’ system.
Young is widely considered to be the most major-league-ready of Seattle’s prospects. And with Mariners season-opening second baseman Ryan Bliss expected to be out for most or all of the year with a biceps tear, Young’s recent surge could have him pushing for a big-league promotion sooner than later.
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