Anyone wondering why Jorge Alfaro has 17 hits in his last seven games need look no further than the third inning of Double-A Reading's game Sunday against Harrisburg.

Alfaro tapped a weak grounder to shortstop Wilmer Difo, who scooped up the routine grounder and fired casually to first base. The Fightin Phils catcher, running full-tilt down the line, beat the throw easily.

"At that time of the game, we were up four or five runs," said Reading hitting coach Frank Cacciatore. "It wasn't like 'Gosh, this is the winning run coming across the plate.' That's just the way he plays the game."

The Phillies' No. 6 prospect continued to impress his coach, finishing 3-for-4 and plating a season-high four runs as the Fightin Phils thumped the Senators, 14-2, at FNB Field.

The 22-year-old has hit safely in all eight of his games this season with multiple hits in each of his last seven, pushing his average to .500.

"He's real aggressive on the fastball, he comes to the plate and he's looking to swing," Cacciatore said. "Basically he's such an aggressive guy and he's got such good hands, and he just kind of reacts. He's been really getting after it, not trying to be too picky, just trying to get something up in the zone, and he's done a great job. I can't say enough about him.

"He comes to work every day and I think that has been a real big part of it to me."

The 6-foot-2, 225 pound backstop put Reading on the board with an RBI groundout in the first against Harrisburg starter Lucas Giolito (0-1), MLB.com's No. 1 overall prospect. Seven innings later, Alfaro capped his day with his first triple of the year, a drive to deep center field off reliever Robert Fish that brought in two runs.

Alfaro's aggression on the fastball proved useful against the hard-throwing Giolito and the Senators' bullpen.

"I think that [approach] serves him well pretty much 90 to 95 percent of the time," Cacciatore said. "Most guys that are going to be at this level have a pretty good fastball, and they're going to use it. The more he sets up that fastball, if anything hangs in soft, he's going to hit."

But the coach cautioned against reading too much into his sparkling stats.

"It's going to be real interesting to see how teams make adjustments to him," Cacciatore said. "I'm sure his name is getting out there in the [Eastern] League and the whole bit. As we go along, we'll see what kind of adjustments we have to make. But he's open to everything. Like I said, he's a real good worker, and to me, that's three-quarters of the battle."

Even when his numbers do come back to earth, MLB.com's No. 94 overall prospect will just keep working harder.

"If you do your job and go about your business the right way, which so far that's been second to none, things are going to take care of themselves," Cacciatore said. "And he's been taking care of business."

KC Serna finished 4-for-6 and drove in four runs for Reading, which amassed a season-high 16 hits. Harold Martinez added three singles and scored four times.

No. 27 Philadelphia prospect Alec Asher (1-2) surrendered two runs on six hits and a walk and fanned five over six innings to get the win.

Giolito allowed five runs -- one earned -- on seven hits with a walk and three strikeouts over 3 2/3 frames.