Perez reaches new heights for Lookouts

Throughout his first 286 professional games, Alex Perez had put together 11 three-hit performances. On Wednesday night, he took it two steps further.
The Minnesota infield prospect doubled while recording the first five-hit game of his career as Double-A Chattanooga downed Birmingham, 6-2, at AT&T Field. Perez, who never had more than three hits in a game, raised his Southern League average to .283.

"It's always good to be a sparkplug at the top of the order and do what you can to be there for the guys and help get a win," he said.
The 25-year-old began the contest with a leadoff ground-rule double to right-center field and scored the game's first run after Birmingham starter Jimmy Lambert uncorked a wild pitch with the bases loaded. In the second inning, he got another chance against the29th-ranked White Sox prospect and pulled a single on the ground through the right side.
Perez lined a hit to left in the fourth, beat out an infield single in the sixth and bounced another one to right in his final at-bat in the eighth.
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He said Chattanooga manager Tommy Watkins and hitting coach Javier Valentin helped to develop new on-deck and batting practice approaches in the past couple weeks.
"They noticed ... that my swing was uphill," the Virginia Tech product said. "I've been working downhill now before the games ... just really emphasizing staying on top of the ball. Where ever in the game the ball goes it'll go, but ... to just focus on being straight through the ball."
The implementation of the new plan seems to have paid off for Perez, who has collected 10 hits through his first 19 trips to the plate in July.
"Once I got used to it and it started to translate, it was seamless," he said. "It was a no-brainer." 
Perez began the season with Class A Advanced Fort Myers and batted .208/.236/.463 in his third turn in the Florida State League. He returned to the Lookouts on May 2 to mark the third consecutive year in which climbed a level midseason.
Although the Miami native has experience at all each infield position, he played exclusively at second base for Chattanooga -- except one inning on the hill -- before slotting in at shortstop Wednesday.
"You have to focus more defensively," Perez said. "So offensively, you're relaxed and you can just see ball, hit ball."

He played in 40 games after making his Double-A debut at the end of last season, when he hit .272/.395/.312 with five doubles and 21 runs scored. Still in search of his first homer, Perez has been effective with runners in scoring position this season, going 19-for-44 (.432) with 22 RBIs in that situation.
"I've been working to just get an aggressive swing," the 23rd-round selection in the 2015 Draft said. "Just see the ball and take my best swing to the best pitch I'm going to get that at-bat and just have fun."
Twins No. 7 prospectBrent Rooker doubled and scored a run while Jaylin Davis also collected a pair of hits, including a solo shot to center in a four-run first for Chattanooga.
Lambert (1-1) surrendered six runs on eight hits and a walk with a pair of strikeouts over three innings. It was the second Double-A outing for the 23-year-old, who went 5-7 with a 3.95 ERA in 13 appearances for Class A Advanced Winston-Salem before his promotion on June 27.