HOT ROSARIO TIPS HIS CAP TO CAMPUSANO

Eguy Rosario needed a month to get going last year, so the 22-yearold Dominican wasn’t sweating a slow start to his first stint in the Pacific Coast League. That said, it didn’t hurt having a conversation with Luis Campusano about how the Padres’ top catching prospect is so adept keeping his hands inside the baseball.

“I’ve been working on that and working on that and something good has come from it,” Rosario said last month at Southwest University Park. “I told him, ‘Thank you, you opened my eyes.’ ”

Rosario hit eight of his 11 home runs in June, when he hit .289/.368/ .625 in 25 games after posting a .675 OPS the first two months of the season. He continued to trend in the right direction to start July, too, going 1-for-2 with a double, two RBIS and three walks on Friday.

Even more telling of the health of his approach, Rosario, the Chihuahuas’ primary second baseman, had struck out in 18 percent of his plate appearances in June after fanning in 30 percent of his plate appearances in April.

“From what we saw the first few weeks of the season to where he is now,” El Paso manager Jared Sandberg said, “... he’s really zoned in, looking for pitches he can do damage on and it’s really helped him not chase as much and get better pitches to hit.”

The Padres added Rosario to the 40-man roster after he paired a career-high 12 homers with a .281/ .360/.455 batting line in 114 games last year at Double-a San Antonio. That distinction followed an invitation to the Arizona Fall League, a finishing school of sorts for teams’ most promising prospects.

“I was so happy,” said Rosario, who is ranked No. 6 in the Padres system by Mlb.com. “My first time there, I was like, is this really happening?”

After a slow April (.618 OPS),

Rosario is sitting on a .258/.350/.455 batting line.

“Last year I started the same way,” Rosario said. “Working, working, working. I knew something good was coming. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”

Around the farm

El Paso (AAA): RHP Matt Waldron, a knuckle-baller, allowed five runs on six hits and a walk in 41⁄3 innings in his Triple-a debut on Thursday. He struck out one. Waldron was 2-1 with a 2.84 ERA, 38 strikeouts and a 1.17 WHIP in 441⁄3 innings to start the year in the Double-a Texas League.

San Antonio (AA): RHP Reggie Lawson had a 9.43 ERA at the end of May, but was 4-0 with a 1.37 ERA, 27 strikeouts and a 0.91 WHIP in five starts (261⁄3 IP) in June. Opponents hit .151 off Lawson in the month.

Fort Wayne (A): INF Max Ferguson is 3-for-17 with three walks and a steal in four games since his promotion to the Midwest League. Ferguson hit .247/.403/.364 with 51 steals and three homers in 64 games to start the year in the California League.

Lake Elsinore (A): RHP Garrett Hawkins (4-4, 4.77) and RHP Alan Mundo (4-1, 2.84) combined for a no-hitter on Friday. Hawkins struck out seven over seven innings but Mundo hit a batter and walked a batter in the ninth inning to lose the perfect game.

ACL Padres (R): OF Joshua Mears is hitting .239/.321/.543 with two homers, five walks and 22 strikeouts in 14 games. He was hitting .185/.299/.463 with eight homers and 56 strikeouts in 31 games to start the year in the high Single-a Midwest League.

DSL Padres (R): C Estiven Giron, a 17-year-old who signed in May out of Venezuela, is hitting .359/.444/.564 with one homer and seven RBIS in his first 13 games as a pro.

jeff.sanders@sduniontribune.com