SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Mookie Betts made the baseball world do a double-take when he shared before Game 3 of the NLCS that he was taking hundreds of swings in pregame workouts, hoping to break out of an early postseason slump.

It may have seemed daunting to anyone hearing that number, and Tommy Troy agreed, but only because he¡¯s been in that same mental and physical space.

The D-backs¡¯ No. 5 prospect opened his Arizona Fall League campaign 1-for-25 through his first six games, and heading into last Thursday¡¯s Salt River home game against Mesa, he channeled his frustration into his preparation work.

¡°I probably had the worst machine cage session of my life probably 30 minutes before the game,¡± he said. ¡°I was just hitting and hitting. It was one of those emotional [times when] you're hitting 150 balls in the cage. I was being stupid, but I don't know. And then first pitch of the game, I got something I could handle and ... I was so tired and I let the bat hang dead. I think that's where I felt like, OK, I need to kill tension in the upper body.

¡°From there, I was starting to let the ball get a little bit deeper because I felt like I had more time. Then that's where the adjustment started to come.¡±

Troy turned that first pitch in the first inning (an 89.8 mph fastball) into a 107.4 mph triple to left-center. He later added a 105.7 mph double in the fifth and a 99.4 mph homer in the seventh -- his first multihit game of the Fall League. He followed up with another a day later, a 4-for-5 showing against Peoria.

In 48 hours, the 22-year-old middle infielder went from an .040 average to .229. His OPS similarly jumped from .218 to .739 on account of his four extra-base hits.

It was a much-needed peak for a player who has seen his fair share of valleys in his early pro career.

Taken 12th overall last year out of Stanford, Troy played 23 games for High-A Hillsboro in his Draft year but needed surgery that September for a fractured left foot. He recovered in time for Opening Day, got 12 games back in the Northwest League and suffered a left hamstring strain that knocked him out for two more months from April 22-June 17.

Rest, recovery and rehab became all too familiar parts of the vocabulary of a player who yearned to prove himself on the diamond.

¡°I was close to going crazy during that downtime,¡± Troy said. ¡°It sucks, especially your first full year. That was my only thing. I just wanted to play the whole year, have fun, and that struck me down. It¡¯s another learning moment. Control what you can control. I¡¯m already hurt. The sense of panic shouldn¡¯t come overall. It happened. You just have to live with it.¡±

After an Arizona Complex League rehab stint, the former Cardinal star ran hot and cold the remainder of the way at High-A. During one 19-game stretch from Aug. 10-31, he produced a .351/.407/.554 line with 10 extra-base hits and seven steals. Then in September, he went just 4-for-23 (.130) in seven games, albeit with 10 walks and seven strikeouts.

Troy finished his time with Hillsboro with a .227/.319/.347 line, five homers and 16 steals. That resulted in a 92 wRC+, making a right-handed slugger who batted .394 as a Stanford junior a below-average hitter in the Northwest League. Perhaps with more consistent playing time, Troy could have developed an improved rhythm in the box -- like the one he¡¯s beginning to find in the Fall League ¨C and got up to par with the lofty expectations set by his Draft status. Then again, he knows the ebbs and flows are part of the Minor League journey.

¡°It's a game of failure,¡± he said. ¡°People say that a million times, but it truly is. I feel like the separator is how you deal with the failure. Each time you go through a rough stretch, how quickly can you bounce back? I mean, this whole year has been a lot of ups and downs for me. But I feel like this failure and struggles that I've endured, it's going to help me in the future. I've gone through it already. The next time I start to struggle, I've gone through this already. I know I'm going to come out the other end.¡±

It will take longer than a brief Fall League turnaround for the 22-year-old to push his stock back up to Draft levels. But he¡¯ll take a journey in the choppier water of the present -- and the lengthy BP work in the cage that comes with it -- if it means eventual smooth sailing down the line.

¡°Honestly, I needed it because it's better to happen now when I'm in A ball than when I finally get to the big leagues and that stuff starts happening there,¡± Troy said. ¡°Take positives out of everything.¡±