Blanks blasts Missions past 'Riders

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Blanks blasts Missions past 'Riders
08/21/2008 2:08 AM ET
By Steve Conley / Special to MLB.com

Kyle Blanks and the San Antonio Missions showed no ill effects, one night after being no-hit for 5 1/3 innings by the Frisco RoughRiders.
The 21-year-old slugger smacked his second homer of the game in the bottom of the 12th to give the Missions a wild 14-12 victory over the RoughRiders at Wolff Stadium.
Needing a triple for the cycle, Blanks followed Chad Huffman's leadoff walk with his 17th homer of the season to give the Missions (28-29) their third win in four games.
"It was great to get the win. We fought back all night and it was nice to get off the field with a win after five hours," Blanks said.
The 6-foot-6, 270-pound first baseman went 5-for-7 and tied a career high with six RBIs. He had run-scoring singles in the first and fourth before launching a two-run homer in the sixth. In the eighth, he hit his 20th double to plate another run and, one batter later, Seth Johnston tied the game at 10-10 with a sacrifice fly.
The teams traded zeros in the ninth to force extra innings and give Blanks another shot at the triple he needed for the cycle. He struck out in the 10th with the Missions trailing, 12-10, but Colt Morton tied the game with a two-out double.
"[The cycle] definitely crossed my mind," Blanks said. "I heard someone say something about it on the bench at some point. I just wanted to get on base and keep the wheels moving and hopefully have someone drive me in."
It was Blanks' fifth career multi-homer game and the third time he has driven in six runs. He homered twice and collected six RBIs for Class A Advanced Lake Elsinore on May 12, 2007. That was part of a season in which the New Mexico native batted .301 with 24 homers, 31 doubles and 100 RBIs to earn California League midseason and postseason All-Star honors.
The six RBIs moved him into second place in the Texas League with 91. A starter in the Texas League All-Star Game, Blanks had a monster July, batting .307 with six homers and 26 RBIs in 26 games. He is 17-for-33 (.515) with three homers and 14 RBIs in his last nine contests.
"I'm just being more patient," said Blanks, San Diego's 42nd-round pick in the 2004 First-Year Player Draft. "When I get those good pitches to hit, I'm hitting them and not missing them."
Drew Macias homered, drove in two runs and scored five times, while Johnston homered and drove in three runs. One night after Frisco's Neftali Feliz and Trey Hodges combined on a rain-shortened no-hitter, Macias, Johnston and Blanks combined to go 10-for-17 with four homers, 11 RBIs and nine runs scored.
"It's never fun to get no-hit," Blanks said. "They pitched well yesterday, but we wanted to come out and swing the bats and take that away. It seemed like everyone had some kind of part in it and we just had that never-say-die attitude."
Mike Ekstrom (10-6) allowed one hit and struck out three over two scoreless frames to win his seventh straight decision. San Antonio starter Stephen Faris gave up six runs on eight hits and two walks with four strikeouts over three innings.
Jones (1-2) was charged with two runs on two hits and two walks while recording five outs. RoughRiders starter Zack Parker yielded four runs on three hits and eight walks with three strikeouts over 2 2/3 innings.
Chad Tracy homered, drove in three runs and fell a triple shy of the cycle, but Frisco (28-29) had a five-game winning streak snapped. Steven Murphy and Manuel Pina each contributed three hits and two RBIs.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.