TRENTON, N.J. – An adjustment in his approach has made all the difference for Bryce Brentz.

The Red Sox’s top outfield prospect and No. 5 overall, according to Baseball America, Brentz continued his recent tear by matching a Sea Dogs record with five hits, going 5 for 5 with a double and an RBI in Portland’s 7-4 loss to the Trenton Thunder Sunday at Waterfront Park.

Brentz, a right-handed batter, is hitting .432 (16 for 37) in his last 10 games, raising his average 67 points, from .212 with one homer and seven RBI on May 3 to .279 (34 for 122) with three homers and 12 RBI.

An aggressive hitter by nature, Brentz simply has been laying off pitches he can’t hit and waiting for ones he can.

“At the start of the season, everything was breaking balls,” Brentz said of the way he was being pitched.

“If they hang it, obviously make them pay. But I was so overaggressive with it, chasing balls out of the zone then going after the elevated fastball. Now I’m starting to show teams I’m not going swing at the curveball every pitch and lay off the high fastball. Now they have to come into the zone and eventually I can get a pitch I can do something with.”

In spring training, Red Sox Manager Bobby Valentine praised Brentz to MLB.com, saying the ball sounded different off his bat.

And, after the early struggles, he has continued to impress in his first season at Double-A.

“He’s made some adjustments to his approach and we’re starting to see the results,” Sea Dogs Manager Kevin Boles said. “We definitely like the ability and he’s really starting to take to it. He’s made some adjustments and it’s been fun to watch.

“He’s a guy that looks to impact the baseball and you don’t want to take that aggressiveness away from him. We look at that as a positive sign. He’s a guy with a lot of strength and plus bat speed. He’s just now starting to work counts, get pitches to hit and putting good swings on them.”

Of his five hits Sunday, three came in hitter’s counts, one with an even count and the other when he was behind 0-1. Besides working the count well, Brentz has all but eliminated the left side of the field because he isn’t getting much on the inside part of the plate. Four of his five hits Sunday were to center field and the other to right.

“That’s the thing I’ve been doing lately is take what they give me, which is mostly to right field,” said Brentz, who credited Portland hitting coach Dave Joppie for his improvement. “I really don’t see that many balls inside and, when I do, it’s a hard two-seamer that I couldn’t do anything with anyway. It’s just sticking with our approach.”

The best example Sunday might have been his sixth-inning double.

In front 2-1, Brentz got a hard cutter from Trenton right-hander Ryan Flannery that started on the inner half and finished on the outside. An aggressive swing likely would’ve have been a swinging strike or groundout, but Brentz calmly went with the pitch and drove it down the right-field line.