Jimenez cranks four hits again for Knights

With each passing game, Eloy Jiménez strengthens his case to be a September callup. 
The top White Sox prospect singled in all four of his plate appearances Monday -- tying his season high for hits -- and scored a run as Triple-A Charlotte defeated Gwinnett, 3-1, at BB&T Ballpark. 

The anticipation of Jimenez -- MLB.com's No. 3 overall prospect -- getting to the big leagues is reaching its apex with Sept. 1 around the corner. His play all season -- and over the last week, in particular -- has seemingly made his debut with Chicago imminent. But according to Knights hitting coach Andy Tomberlin, the next level is far from Jimenez's mind.
"The conversation is not about getting called up. It's about what he's got to do today," Tomberlin said. "He's really focused on his job, on what he needs to do today, where he's at. I think that helps him focus on what he's doing, because if his mind was getting ready for a callup, I don't think he'd be in the moment to compete the way he is.
"It was a good game for him. He's had a pretty good stretch. I know that he's not really satisfied. He knows that it's still a process and he's still learning."
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Much of Jimenez's success the hitting coach attributed to the slugger's balanced approach at the plate. Tomberlin said it's "awesome to watch" a young player with such an advanced idea of how his at-bats should go.
"He's trying to have quality at-bats," he said. "He's really not trying to do too much. He understands his abilities. At his age, it's just a polished approach he's shown here at Triple-A so far. I tell you, he has fun. He's going to be involved. He pays attention to what type of pitcher he's facing. He's paying attention to the tendencies and the patterns."
Facing Stripers starter Wes Parsons in the first inning, the 21-year-old lined the first pitch into center field. The next batter, Matt Skole, plated him with a game-tying double. Two innings later, the right-handed hitter jumped on the first offering from the righty again, this time smacking a base knock to right. In the fifth, Jimenez once more took Parsons the other way.

"Part of that process is getting a good pitch and putting a good swing on it and keeping it simple," Tomberlin said. "At the same time, there is no method to what count [he hits in]. His approach works in most counts."
At the plate in the seventh with a chance for his third four-hit night of 2018 and second in two games, the native of the Dominican Republic chopped a slow roller to the left side. Jimenez put on the burners out of the box and Stripers third baseman Austin Riley, the fourth-ranked Braves prospect, could not field the ball cleanly. It was ruled an infield hit.
"He has good strides," the coach said. "On that last hit, it got in on him pretty good. But the fact is, a hit's a hit. He did hustle. That's something that's part of the approach too. When you hit it, you've got to run."
Jimenez entered the final day of July with a .396 average in the International League. A little more than two weeks later, a 1-for-5 performance against Louisville completed a 60-point dip of that number. In between, he endured four hitless games and recorded two multi-hit contests.
But Monday's effort marked Jimenez's fifth multi-hit showing in a week and raised his IL average to .378. Along the way, he's plated five runs and scored three times, sporting a 1.047 OPS on the year. The 6-foot-4 outfielder has 11 home runs and 32 RBIs with Charlotte since June 21. Overall, he has 21 long balls and 74 RBIs.

Tomberlin admitted that while Jimenez did not hit every ball on the nose against Gwinnett, the way he attacks the opposition allows him to be successful even without squaring up every offering.
"[His approach] has room for error," he said. "I think he stays in the middle of the field and he goes off of that. He's a young man that has a lot of power, but he's not in a hurry to display it, to chase pitches out of the zone early in the count. Everyone swings at a bad pitch at certain times. But he's done a tremendous job of staying disciplined, and that's basically what he's trying to do, is take quality at-bats every time."
Charlotte's bullpen trio of Brandon Brennan, Aaron Bummer and Ian Hamilton delivered five scoreless innings of relief. 
Riley, the No. 43 overall prospect, clubbed his fifth home run in his last 10 games to account for the Stripers' offense.