Brewers first baseman Eric Thames spent the previous three seasons of his career in Korea playing with the NC Dinos. Once a major league washout, Thames resuscitated his career, smashing 37, 47, and 40 home runs in consecutive seasons in the KBO. That was enough to entice the Brewers to offer him a three-year, $16 million contract.
Thames has showed that the power he found overseas is no fluke. He homered in each of his last four games -- including two against the Reds on Saturday -- entering Monday’s game against the Cubs. He made it five straight when he hit a homer to the opposite field in the third inning off of John Lackey. According to Baseball Reference, Thames is the first hitter since Brian Dozier last September 2-6 to hit a homer in five consecutive games. He’s the first Brewer to do so since Jeromy Burnitz (August 1-5) in 1997.
Coming into Monday’s game, Thames was hitting .368/.455/.921 with six home runs, 11 RBI, and 12 runs scored in 44 plate appearances. Pretty good. He’s now the major league leader with seven round-trippers.