By Kevin Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Adam Dunn reached into the soft-sided bag and pulled out another shiny new black bat.

With a new donation in hand, the Reds outfielder walked across the clubhouse floor Thursday, kissed the barrel and presented the bat to Aaron Boone.

"Last one, Boone," Dunn joked before turning and walking away.

Lately, when the Reds third baseman hasn't splintered Dunn's donated lumber in two - as he has done with as many as eight this season, by Dunn's count - he has padded his offensive stats.

Boone tied a career high Thursday by hitting three homers in a game, joining Milwaukee's Richie Sexson as the only major-leaguers to do so this season.

Boone's homers led off the second, sixth and seventh innings.

"I find days like this as humbling as the tough times," said Boone, who broke a bat moments before hitting his third homer of the game. "It's great, but you've just got to turn the page on it."

Not so fast.

Boone's seventh career multihomer game, and second of the season, further spotlighted an ongoing offensive outburst.

A slow starter by his own admission in previous years, he is hitting .288 with 24 RBI through his first 139 at-bats and 25 games this season.

By comparison, Boone had a .214 average with two homers and 16 RBI in his first 140 at-bats last season.

"Each team has varying ways of pitching you," Boone said. "I think part of your job is making adjustments to that. For me it comes down to getting good pitches to hit. If I do that, I'm pretty confident that I'm going to do good things."

Boone's offensive rise happens to coincide with a positional switch April 22. He is hitting .377 with six homers - four of which came in the St. Louis series - and 13 RBI in 16 games since moving from second base back to third.

"I think he's just getting into a rhythm and he's building on it every day," manager Bob Boone said. "He keeps having better and better swings. I really don't think that it's because he moved to third. I think if he had stayed there (at second base) he'd be swinging the same way."

Boone's home run totals have risen in each of the previous three seasons; he had 12 in 2000, 14 in 2001 and 26 in 2002.

And though he's on pace for 46 homers this season, nobody counts Boone as a prototypical power hitter.

"I wouldn't say he's a home run hitter, but he's going to get his," Dunn said. "Offensively and defensively, he's just a solid player all around."