Jacob Gonzalez Hits Three Homers, Takes Triple-A Lead With 18

jacob gonzalez homered three times in a Thursday doubleheader and moved into the outright Triple-A lead with 18 home runs. He did it in two different ways: one swing in the opener, then a four-hit, two-homer finish in the nightcap.

Gonzalez Drives Both Games

In game one, Gonzalez went 1-for-4 and homered in his final plate appearance. That set up the bigger line in game two, where he went 4-for-4 and kept adding pressure with every trip to the plate.

He opened the second game with a home run in the first inning. In the third, he followed with a two-RBI double, then returned in the fourth and homered again before singling in the fifth. Three extra-base hits in one doubleheader gave him the night’s biggest jump on the Triple-A home run leaderboard.

Triple-A Lead At 18

The 18th homer moved him past everyone else at the Triple-A level. For a White Sox infielder listed as the No. 23 prospect in the system, the power surge has turned a second trip to Triple-A into a clear rebound season.

The numbers back that up. Gonzalez is hitting.308/.414/.646 in his second go around in Triple-A, a sharp step forward from last year’s.204/.310/.293 line in 45 games at the end of the season. The difference is not subtle: he is reaching base more often, driving the ball more often, and turning a steady stream of hard contact into actual damage.

White Sox Prospect Trajectory

That leaves the White Sox with a prospect whose bat is forcing attention at the level where he needed a reset. A three-homer doubleheader does not settle a season, but it does put him in a better spot than the one he occupied at the end of last year, when the production lagged behind the tools.

Now the question is not whether the power is showing up. It is how long he can keep pairing it with the on-base and slugging numbers that have carried him to the top of Triple-A’s home run race.