Adam Walker breaking the Chattanooga Lookouts record for home runs in a season would seem a mere formality, but that's not how power hitters tend to function.
Walker hit his 27th homer Friday night against the Tennessee Smokies, pulling him within one of the 28 that Tim Castro launched in 1992 and Scott Schebler matched last season. Yet that was Walker's first homer since July 22, easily his longest drought of the season.
"It's been a little bit of a dry time for me, but I'm still just trying to have quality at-bats and help this team win," Walker said Sunday as the Lookouts closed a 10-game homestand with an 11-4 win over the Smokies. "I've started to feel a little better lately, and I'm just trying to finish strong."
Walker and the Lookouts were off Monday and open a five-game series tonight in Pensacola.
The 6-foot-4, 235-pounder from Milwaukee is a certainty to win the Southern League home-run title, with Jacksonville's Matt Juengel currently a distant second with 16. Walker built his commanding lead by collecting six homers in a 12-day stretch in late June.
"He's been up and down, but that's Adam," Lookouts manager Doug Mientkiewicz said. "He is as streaky as they come. He wants to play every day, which is a good thing, and he understands the importance of being in the lineup. You can't argue with the 27 homers and the 90-something RBIs, so we'll keep doing what we're doing."
Walker has 93 RBIs with 20 games left in the regular season, with Tennessee's Wilson Contreras next in the league with 65.
After batting .270 in the first half of the season, Walker is hitting just .245 now. Eight of his homers have occurred in the second half, including four since the start of July.
"Home-run hitters are streaky," Mientkiewicz said. "Even when they hit 40, they're streaky. Adam's fall in the second half had a little something to do with the lineup around him. We lost a lot of depth at the beginning of the second half."
If Walker can hit two more between now and Labor Day, he would hold the record for the Lookouts since their return to the city in 1976.
"That would definitely be awesome," he said. "Like I said, I'm just trying to help the team win, but it would definitely be cool to have my name in there."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.