Extra work paying dividends for Dominguez

HOUSTON -- Astros third baseman Matt Dominguez has been swinging a hot bat, entering Tuesday riding a seven-game hitting streak, including two hits in each of his previous four games (8-for-17). He batted in the No. 4 spot in the batting order for the fourth consecutive game Tuesday.

The hitting streak had enabled Dominguez to raise his batting average to .259 entering Tuesday from .227.

"My numbers weren't good, but I feel like I swung it good early on and now I'm starting to find some holes," he said. "I've been working on a few things mechanically with [hitting coach John] Mallee. I've stuck with that approach, and it's starting to work out."

Astros manager Bo Porter said he knew when Dominguez started to hit the ball the other way with authority that he was coming around.

"That lets me know he's staying on the ball and he's hitting the ball hard to all fields," he said. "You look at his strike-zone discipline and it is much improved from last year and it buys him some more fastballs to hit. And he's a really good fastball hitter."

The trick for Dominguez now is keeping it up.

"That's what makes guys in the big leagues superstars, are the ones that can do it day in and day out, every single day," he said. "The mechanics are there, the approach is there. It's been going good lately."