D-backs minor-league report: Jensen earns PCL all-star nod
Reno first baseman Kyle Jensen was named Monday to the PCL All-Star team.
Jensen leads all of minor-league baseball with 120 RBI and all Triple-A players with 30 home runs. The 28-year-old first baseman is hitting .298 for the season and carries a 12-game hitting streak (20 for 50 with 4 home runs and 15 RBI) through Sunday's games. His streak includes an inside-the-park home run off the center-field batter's eye in Wednesday's 13-7 win over Tacoma.
Outfielder Socrates Brito, likely to be called up some time after rosters expand on Thursday, also hit an inside-the-park home run in the same victory. His 11-game hitting streak came to an end on Sunday, but during his streak he was 20 for 48 with 14 runs and 8 RBI. Brito is hitting .299 for the Aces with 10 doubles, eight triples and six home runs in 69 games.
Second baseman Ildemaro Vargas has also continued his torrid hitting for Reno. He has an eight-game hitting streak (16 for 38) and is batting .361 with 11 stolen bases in 41 games since being promoted from Double-A Mobile.
The Aces are in second place in the PCL's Northern Division, 3 1/2 games behind Tacoma with eight games remaining, including four games at Tacoma to end the season.
Around the horn
Advanced-A Visalia: Rawhide corner infielder Marty Herum was named to the California League All-Star team. Herum is hitting .304 with eight home runs in 90 games for Visalia. The Rawhide have already clinched a postseason berth by virtue of being first-half champions in the Northern Division.
Single-A Kane County: Emilio Vargas struck out 17 batters and took a one-hit shutout into the ninth inning of a 4-2 victory over Quad Cities on Aug. 20, and followed that up with five scoreless innings in a win over Burlington on Thursday. The 20-year-old Vargas is 5-6 with a 3.31 ERA for the Cougars, but he's made six consecutive starts giving up two earned runs or fewer (35 innings, 21 hits, 5 earned runs, 4 walks, 48 strikeouts). Vargas was 1-4 with a 5.30 ERA in his first seven starts for the Cougars.
Kane County pitching coach Rich Sauveur said the big difference was eliminating the curveball from Vargas' mix -- limiting his repertoire to fastball, slider, changeup.
"It just seemed that was a pitch he kept getting hurt with, and game in and game out, it just seemed three or four hits during that outing were because of the curveball," Sauveur told milb.com. "I told him I didn't feel he needed that pitch, so we just went with fastball, slider and changeup. He seemed to take off with that."
--Kane County first baseman Trevor Mitsui, who was promoted to Visalia earlier this month, was named to the Midwest League All-Star team. Mitsui was hitting .291 with 59 RBI at the time of his promotion.
Short-season Hillsboro: The Hops clinched a South Division playoff berth for a third consecutive season with Sunday's 11-8 victory over Boise and will take on Eugene in a best-of-three series starting Sept. 7. Third baseman Josh Anderson's grand slam was the big blow as part of an eight-run second inning for the Hops. Anderson is third in the Northwest League with a .330 batting average.
