BRINSON BLAST FOR MARLINS BRINGS BACK MEMORIES
JUPITER — Lewis Brinson might not be the second coming of Giancarlo Stanton, but he blasted a towering home run Tuesday that brought back a few memories of the Marlins’ former slugger.
Brinson’s deep, two-run shot in the fourth inning landed in a grass courtyard on the other side of the Marlins’ spring training complex, an area where Stanton once deposited baseballs. “I knew it was gone, obviously,” Brinson said of his first homer in a Marlins uniform.
Former Marlin Marcell Ozuna, playing left field for the Cardinals when Brinson tagged Jack Flaherty’s 0-1 pitch, barely gave the ball a second look.
Brinson, who was part of the package the Marlins got from Milwaukee in the Christian Yelich trade, has never hit more than 21 home runs in any minor-league season. But he said he thinks there’s more in the tank. “Home runs kind of happen by accident,” Brinson said. “I’m not trying to search for power. I know my power’s there. Homers will come.”
Brinson was hitting .350 with a .381 on-base percentage and .700 slugging average entering play Wednesday. Manager Don Mattingly is impressed by how Brinson adjusts from one at-bat to the next, as he did Tuesday. Brinson struck out in his first at-bat before crushing a homer in the second.
“At times he looks really bad, but then the next at-bat you see a better one,” Mattingly said. “He stays within himself and stays calm.”