Salt Lake's Perez racks up five hits in return
Carlos Pèrez returned to Triple-A on April 19 after starting the season in the Major Leagues. Exactly one month later, he went on the disabled list with a right quadriceps strain.In his return Thursday night, he looked like a player ready to return to the big leaguesPerez collected four singles,
Carlos Pèrez returned to Triple-A on April 19 after starting the season in the Major Leagues. Exactly one month later, he went on the disabled list with a right quadriceps strain.
In his return Thursday night, he looked like a player ready to return to the big leagues
Perez collected four singles, a double and drove in two runs, but Triple-A Salt Lake fell to visiting El Paso, 8-5.
"He just came off the DL," Salt Lake hitting coach Lou Marson said. "We've just been trying to get him to make better decisions up there and not have so many predetermined swings, make up his mind that he's going to swing before the pitch is even thrown.
"He's been doing a better job of not chasing sliders ... getting the slider up and getting a good pitch to hit and putting a good swing on it."
Gameday box score
Batting second, Perez made his presence felt quickly, singling to left field in the first inning. The catcher beat out an infield single to third base in the second and laced another line-drive single to center in the fourth. A single to center in the sixth by the Venezuela native scored Matt Williams, but the Bees trailed 6-3.
"He was just up there waiting, looking middle, middle-away where his strength is," Marson said. "He was trying to keep it simple and put a good swing on the pitch. It was nothing crazy. We haven't really talked about anything crazy. It's his first game back in a while, so it was just kind of weird that he got five hits tonight in his first night back. That's a good sign."
After walking in the seventh, Perez doubled to left in the ninth to plate Sherman Johnson. The outburst raised the 26-year-old's batting average 54 points to .393.
It marked his second career five-hit night, matching what he did for the Angels last July 2 in Boston.
"He's been great there," Marson said. "I think that whole thing is just to get him as many at-bats as we can, see as many pitches as he can before whenever that is that he gets called back up so he's ready to go when he goes back up."
The protection around Perez didn't hurt. Leadoff man Eric Young Jr. went 2-for-4 and C.J. Cron went 2-for-5 in his second game back from the big leagues.
"It's a great spot [in the lineup," Marson said. "EY's been raking all year. We just got C.J. from the big league team, and obviously guys at going to come at Carlos and give him some pitches to hit. That happened tonight."
El Paso belted three homers, including back-to-back shots by Padres No. 23 prospectFranchy Cordero and Jose Pirela to lead off the ninth. Diego Goris also went deep for the Chihuahuas.
Tyler Maun is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @TylerMaun.
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