Paul gladly moves past bad start

A five-month baseball season is a marathon, and 51s outfielder Xavier Paul had to remind himself of that when the season started and he was left behind.

Two weeks into his first season in Triple A, Paul did not want to see his statistics. But he looked anyway, and saw he was batting .133.

"I started pretty slow," the 23-year-old center fielder said. "I'm not going to lie. It bothered me, and I started to worry.

"You try not to look at your numbers, but when you're doing that poorly, it's tough for it not to bother you at all."

Paul pulled himself out of the slump and picked up the pace. He got off to an ideal start Friday night, hitting a leadoff home run to help Las Vegas defeat the Fresno Grizzlies 11-3 at Cashman Field.

The game began 10 minutes late because of rain, and the temperature was 56 degrees. The left-handed-hitting Paul ignited the 51s' offense by lining a fastball over the left-field wall.

Terry Tiffee, who went 4-for-5 to raise his average to .422, had a single and double in Las Vegas' seven-run seventh.

"Xavier is hanging in there," 51s manager Lorenzo Bundy said. "He's starting to figure out some things about his swing."

Paul, batting .273 with five homers, went 1-for-3 with two walks and has raised his average 140 points in five weeks.

"At one point, I think I was maybe 5-for-50," said Paul, who actually started 6-for-45 at the plate. "At some point I just said, 'You've got to let go, don't play so tense.'

"My manager and the coaching staff, they've been very positive and very supportive, even when I was struggling. I'm pretty happy about the way things are going."

Paul is in his sixth season in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. He was a fourth-round pick in 2003 out of Slidell (La.) High School.

His older brother, Matt, was drafted by the Dodgers in 2004 and is now a scout for the team. The brothers played together for two seasons in the minor leagues.

Paul spent last year at Double-A Jacksonville, where he hit .291 with 11 homers, 50 RBIs and 17 stolen bases. His transition to Las Vegas was not as easy as he expected.

"The one thing about moving up a level, the challenge is going to be, can you make adjustments? If you want to be a good player, you need to have that confidence in yourself that you can make those adjustments and do the things necessary to perform at this level," he said.

"I'm the youngest guy on this team. I think having all this experience around me, if taken advantage of, it will only make me a better ballplayer. I have fun playing with these guys."