Chihuahuas' Villanueva continues May surge

Christian Villanueva needed two days to shake off some early-season woes. That was no surprise to Triple-A El Paso hitting coach Morgan Burkhart.
"He's a good hitter. I've seen what he's done in the past," Burkhart said. "He's got a lot of abilities there and he's still young. He has good hand-eye coordination, he's strong, so there's a lot there. He just needs to get some at-bats under his belt, but I think he's going to be really good."
The Padres farmhand homered, drove in three runs and scored five times in his first career five-hit game in the Chihuahuas' 16-8 win over Oklahoma City at Southwest University Park. 

After missing all of April with an injury, Villanueva made his season debut May 4 and went hitless in his first 11 at-bats. He's responded with a 16-for-34 stretch, collecting eight hits over the past two games.
Gameday box score
"He's been getting better with his at-bats," Burkhart said. "His timing continues to get better and he simplified things a little bit. He's also got a knack for finding the barrel on the ball. He's been doing well for a while now."
The 25-year-old third baseman singled to left in the second inning before he cut El Paso's deficit to 4-2 with a solo home run to left-center in the fourth.
"He's good at getting his pitch and he's staying in the zone well right now," Burkhart said. "He got something up a little bit and crushed it."

Villanueva added an RBI double to right in the sixth before collecting two singles during a nine-run eighth in which the Chihuahuas sent 13 men to the plate. 
"Guys were fired up and happy with what was going on," Burkhart said. "But I think they expect that. I don't know if they expect nine runs and 10 hits in one inning, but they expect to go up there and do well and that confidence, I think, that leads to a lot."
El Paso also got four hits apiece from Padres No. 23 prospect Franchy Cordero and Rafael Ortega, while Jose Pirela homered twice and drove in four runs.

"We had some good, tough at-bats," Burkhart said. "We got into deep counts and that kind of gets the guys going. I think a lot of them fed off on each other tonight."
Dodgers No. 4 prospect Willie Calhoun homered in his third straight game while third-ranked Alex Verdugo went 3-for-5 for Oklahoma City.