51s’ Young loves to have fun, but his bat is no joke

When Delwyn Young turned 25 on Saturday, 51s manager Lorenzo Bundy joked that he had aged a quarter-century in three months of working with the free-spirited outfielder.

"He's loose, sometimes too loose," Bundy said of the team's only representative on the Pacific Coast League All-Star team. "He's very good in this clubhouse."

Young, who likes to give Bundy a hard time, said the season is too long not to have fun.

"It's hard being so serious about something you know you're going to fail at, so I try to keep it light to make it easy for myself," Young said. "Everybody's different, but I like to keep it fun and loose."

Although he's a bit of a clubhouse clown, Young wields a serious bat and has been locked in the last few weeks.

He smoked a triple to deep center field in his first at-bat against Fresno on Monday night at Cashman Field to extend his hitting streak to 12 games and finished a home run shy of the cycle in the 51s' 10-4 victory, going 3-for-5 with one RBI and three runs.

Young, who leads the PCL in doubles with 32, is batting .444 (24-for-54) during his streak and is among the league leaders in hits (103) and average (.332). He has a team-leading 13 homers and 62 RBIs.

"His bat's going to get him to the big leagues, and he's going to have to hit to stay in the big leagues," Bundy said. "He doesn't steal bases, and he's not a great defender. His bat's his ticket, there's no doubt about it."

Young, a fourth-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2002, said his approach to the game is simple.

"I'm just hitting what I see," he said. "My goal is to win my at-bats, play good defense and have a good game, and all that transpires into one big ball of fun."

Young, a native of California who grew up a Dodgers fan, even took his first trip to the majors in stride. He was promoted to Los Angeles last September and appeared in eight games, going 0-for-5.

"It was a good time," he said. "For me, it's just another league that I haven't played in. It's still baseball."

De Jon Watson, the Dodgers' director of player development, said Young has made tremendous strides this season.

"He's beating on that door pretty hard right now trying to get some people to pay attention, which is really nice to see," Watson said. "He's not taking anything for granted out here, and he's really improved as an outfielder."

Young, who started his professional career as a second baseman, told Watson playing the outfield is just like shagging fly balls in batting practice.

"He said it's not that easy," Young said. "The hardest part for me is once I catch the ball, what do I do with it? You can tell any kid to go catch a fly ball."

• NOTES -- Fresno third baseman Justin Leone, a Bonanza High School product, homered in his second straight game and has hit six of his 14 home runs this season against the 51s. ... Right fielder Nate Schierholtz was optioned back to Fresno after hitting .325 in 14 games with the San Francisco Giants. He went 1-for-5 with two RBIs and leads the Grizzlies with a .344 average.