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Profar heating up after cool April

Rangers top prospect homers twice, extends hitting streak
May 18, 2013

Jurickson Profar may have started the season slowly, but he's been coming through with regularity for Triple-A Round Rock.

MLB.com's top overall prospect homered twice in his second straight three-hit game, drove in three runs and scored three times Saturday night as the Express rallied past visiting Colorado Springs, 6-5.

Profar was batting .231 as the calendar flipped from April to May. But he's traditionally been a slow starter, hitting .253 last April for Double-A Frisco and .235 for Class A Hickory in the opening month of the 2011 season.

Against the Sky Sox, the 20-year-old went 3-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to eight games and raise his average to .278, the highest it's been since April 16. He's 9-for-16 in his last four contests and has been held hitless only twice since April 25.

Profar recorded the first multi-homer game of his four-year Minor League career and has made steady contact after a six-game stretch in early April in which he struck out 10 times. He hasn't fanned more than once in consecutive games since.

Facing Colorado Springs starter Drew Carpenter in the first inning, Profar smacked a 1-1 pitch up the middle for a single. He scored on a two-out double by Aaron Cunningham.

Profar came to the plate with one out and a runner on first in the third. Carpenter fell behind, 2-0, and the Rangers No. 1 prospect pulled his next offering over the right-field fence for his third homer of the season and first since April 21.

After Rockies No. 16 prospect Corey Dickerson homered in the seventh to lift the Sky Sox into a 5-5 tie, it was Profar's turn again. The switch-hitter from Curacao went the other way with a 1-2 pitch from right-hander Manny Corpas, depositing it on the berm in left.

A natural shortstop, Profar played his second straight game at second base. He made 25 appearances at the position at Double-A last season and saw action there following a September callup by the Rangers.

Dickerson's fifth homer extended his hitting streak to 15 games. His .376 batting average is third-best in the Pacific Coast League and he's tied for first with Reno's Kila Ka'aihue with 91 total bases.

Josh Jackson is a contributor to MLB.com.