Perez powers up twice in Wood Ducks' win

Between getting back to full strength after an injury and adjusting to a new league, Yanio Perez had yet to get going at the Class A Advanced level. At least until Tuesday.
The Rangers' 15th-ranked prospect blasted his first two homers as a Wood Duck in his 19th Carolina League game as Down East edged Winston-Salem, 7-6, at BB&T Ballpark. He drove in three runs and notched his second multi-hit effort in three contests.

Gameday box score
Perez struck out in the first inning against Dash starter and No. 19 White Sox prospectBernardo Flores but atoned in his next at-bat in the third. After running the count to 2-1, the 21-year-old first baseman took the next pitch deep to left-center field for his 10th homer of the season and first since a promotion from Class A Hickory.
"Honestly, a little weight has been lifted off my shoulders, but that's not what I strive to do," Perez said through team trainer and translator Alex Rodriguez. "It's not my game. I like to hit line drives up the middle, but honestly, it felt good to do it."

One homer wasn't enough, however, as Perez came up again in the fifth with nobody out and a runner on first. After a wild pitch by Flores allowed Franklin Rollin to take second, Perez blasted a 1-0 offering over the left field wall for another homer that extended the Wood Ducks' advantage to 7-2.
"I was more comfortable after the previous at-bat, just looking for a fastball in," Perez said. "[There was a] man on second, I was trying to drive him in and I noticed Salem was pitching me inside a lot. My whole approach was looking for fastball in and attacking it, and that's exactly what I did."
Perez struck out again in the seventh and has fanned twice in each of his last two games, although he drew three walks in Monday's 11-7 loss to Myrtle Beach. Despite an impressive overall slash line of .302/.371/.484 in 19 games with Down East and 49 contests at Hickory, the adjustment to the U.S. hasn't been easy for Perez, who signed with the Rangers out of Cuba for $1.1 million last September.
"The main thing to adjust to is the language barrier," Perez said. "Not just speaking the language, but baseball jargon in the dugout and throughout the community is very different than in the Latin countries, just speaking baseball and understanding what they mean with certain terms."

The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Havana native was hitting .356/.429/.630 through May 18 and coming off a 2-for-5 game in Kannapolis that included a homer and a triple, but he tore a ligament in his right middle finger and landed on the disabled list for nearly two weeks.
Perez returned on May 31, but after recording 18 extra-base hits in 38 games before the injury, he managed three -- all doubles -- in the 29 games since the injury before Tuesday night. Still, he did enough to earn a promotion to Down East on June 12.
"It's been a rough few weeks, but I'm a lot more confident now," Perez said. "It was a combination of adjusting to the new league and also my recovery, but I've had better ABs recently.

"In this league, the main difference is they make you chase and know how to pitch to corners. I'm facing a lot more experienced pitchers in this league and it took time to adjust to that, but the more ABs I've taken, the more comfortable I've gotten."
Perez brought his batting line with the Wood Ducks up to .250/.317/.361, but he wasn't the only one in the lineup to produce against the Dash. Center fielder Matt Lipka went 3-for-5 with a homer, two doubles and three RBIs, combining with Perez to plate six of Down East's seven runs.
Sixth-ranked White Sox prospect Zack Collins went 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs for the Dash, while Brady Conlan also had two hits and drove in two runs.