Jon Singleton announced his return to the Astros in emphatic fashion.
Singleton, who was called up from Triple-A earlier this week, blasted his first home runs in eight years in Houston’s 11-3 win over the Angels on Friday night.
With his first roundtrippers since 2015, which also came against the Angels, Singleton, 31, became the first major league player to have a multi-home run game after an eight-plus year dinger drought, according to OptaSTATS.
He also drove in a career-best five runs in the victory.
With two runners on in the second inning, Singleton ripped a 2-0 pitch from lefty Reid Detmers deep to right field for a three-run homer.
He followed that up with a two-run blast in the third inning, sending a towering drive down the right field line, just inside the foul pole.
Singleton added a walk in the fourth and a single in the eighth to reach base four times in the blowout.
The California native’s winding path in baseball began when he was drafted in the eighth round of the 2009 MLB Draft by the Phillies before he was subsequently traded to the Astros in 2011 in exchange for Hunter Pence.
He was one of baseball’s most highly touted prospects with the Astros from 2011-2014, competing in the 2012 Futures Game in Kansas City.
Singleton, along with Carlos Correa, George Springer and Alex Bregman, was supposed to be a foundational piece of the Astros’ rise back to prominence.
He was even guaranteed $10 million before being ever officially called up to the majors.
But Singleton, who debuted in 2014, spent only parts of two major league seasons with the club.
He spent time away from the majors because of multiple drug-related suspensions, getting banned for 100 games in 2018 as a result of repeated infractions and violations of MLB’s drug policy.
He was released by the Astros while serving his suspension.
“At this point, it’s pretty evident to me that I’m a drug addict,” he told The Associated Press after the suspension. “I don’t openly tell everyone that, but it’s pretty apparent to myself. I know that I enjoy smoking weed, I enjoy being high and I can’t block that out of my mind that I enjoy that. So I have to work against that.”
During the pandemic, Singleton spent time in the Mexican League before signing a Minor League contract with the Milwaukee Brewers following the 2021 season.
He made 11 MLB appearances with Milwaukee this season, returning to the Majors for the first time since 2015, recording three base hits in 29 at-bats.
He later cleared waivers and returned to the Astros on a minor league contract, where he was called up on Tuesday.