Castillo hits new heights with Rawhide

This season, Henry Castillo has seen time at three different positions and seven different spots in the order for Class A Advanced Visalia. That type of adaptability in a hitter makes a player indispensable. And hitting just happens to be what Castillo does best. 

Arizona's No. 28 prospect belted a homer and set a career high with five RBIs on Monday to lead Class A Advanced Visalia to a 10-4 victory over visiting Modesto.

"When you deal with ups and downs and moving players around all the time in the lineup, you can lose ability sometimes," Visalia hitting coach Vince Harrison said. "With Casty, we feel comfortable with him hitting behind a runner, being able to execute a hit-and-run from all that to him driving the ball out of the yard. He definitely has a lot of versatility that a lot of guys don't have."

Castillo hit the ball on the button in his first at-bat, but Modesto starter Ryan Castellani -- the Rockies' No. 16 prospect -- was quick to react to record the out. In his second trip to the dish, the 21-year-old second baseman drove in his first run of the game with a fielder's-choice groundout to second base. 

"One of his best attributes is that he hits the fastball well, so when I saw the power matchup, I definitely felt good about it going forward," Harrison said. "I like him in RBI situations, because if they throw a fastball they won't sneak it by him. Then they turn to their breaking ball, which ends up being their second or third pitch. Since he hits the fastball so well, he makes them change their gameplan."

Castillo's first hit of the game was a clutch one. The native of the Dominican Republic sparked a two-out rally in the fifth with a two-RBI single to right field before coming around to score on Grant Heyman's two-run homer.

"That's the hit that turned the game," Harrison said. "We had runners on second and third and [Castellani] was really close to getting out of it, but then Casty did a good job getting his hands inside a tough slider and got enough of it to get it out to right field. It went from 3-2 to 7-2 real quick and it all started with him."

In the seventh, Castillo continued his onslaught by sending the first pitch he saw from Modesto reliever Colin Welmon to right-center field for a solo shot. 

Castillo has nine homers on the season, tripling his total from 2015 in 79 games for Class A Kane County. 

"When he's ready to hit and swings at good pitches, he's one of the guys that I feel good about doing some serious damage," said Harrison, who coached Castillo at Kane County last season and Rookie-level Missoula in 2014. "He's had five or six balls that he's hit to the wall this season that could have been homers. He could be at 15 homers already this year if a few of those went out."

Castillo reached base again in the eighth, drawing a two-out walk to load the bases. 

Through 96 games for Visalia this season, Castillo has set the pace in the California League with 33 doubles. His 44 extra-base hits rank second in the circuit, trailing only No. 20 Rangers prospect Travis Demeritte of High Desert. 

"He's had a few doubles this year that were late inning at-bats where he fought and fought against a guy with good velocity and then he shortens up and rips an opposite-field double. He has a line-drive kind of approach, which helps him hit a lot of doubles," Harrison added.

Justin Donatella (3-1) allowed two runs on four hits and struck out seven in six innings for the Rawhide.

Castellani (4-8) allowed eight runs on nine hits and a walk and fanned three over six frames.