Every ballplayer wants to get off to a great start, especially if you are climbing the ladder in the minor leagues.

IronPig righty Zach Eflin could not have started the season any better, as he has amassed one of the best starts of any pitcher in the history of the Lehigh Valley franchise.The 22-year-old, the second youngest in all of Triple-A, who came over in the Jimmy Rollins deal, recently posted his second scoreless outing in four starts to raise his record to 3-0 and lower his ERA to 2.05.To show the scope of his dominance through four games, he has given up runs in just two of the 27 innings in which he has pitched. He gave up a sacrifice fly in his first start of the season against Rochester, and then went 12 scoreless innings until he was belted around for five first-inning runs against the Pawtucket Red Sox. Since then, he has started another scoreless innings streak. After his 6.1-inning performance Wednesday night at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, his current streak sits at 11."It's a lot of fun to watch him command the baseball," LV manager Dave Brundage said after Eflin's last home start against Rochester. "He didn't miss a lot of spots, he changed speeds, he added and subtracted, and kept them off balance the whole time."Eflin works both sides of the plate with his fastball. His curveball, according to his catcher Andrew Knapp, is his "knockout pitch." He currently touts a 22-to-3 strikeout/walk ratio, and owns a minuscule WHIP of 0.73, which means batters are not getting on base against the righty."When you get ahead 0-1, 0-2, it is pretty easy to go from there with the repertoire of (his) pitches," said Knapp.In his strongest outing, Eflin exuded total control of the Rochester lineup when he retired 17 straight batters and tossed eight shutout innings. That effort earned him the International Pitcher of the Week."It's hard to lose a game if you don't give up any runs," said outfielder Cam Perkins. "When you have a guy pounding the zone, it makes it a lot easier to do my job in the field, and allows me to focus on hitting."Eflin's next start is scheduled for Tuesday, when he will get another crack at Pawtucket.Appel of GoldMark Appel (3-0) has also started well and will take the mound tonight. He has won all three starts and carries a 1.62 ERA. He has 14 strikeouts in 16.1 innings pitched. Like Eflin, Appel has given up runs in only two of the 17 innings he has pitched.The former No. 1 overall draft pick out of Stanford has yet to reach his full potential, but has shown over the course of his three seasons in the minors that he has continued to progress.Last season, he had a combined 10-3 record with 131 innings pitched at AA and AAA. That was offset, though, by a high ERA of 4.37 and a below average WHIP of 1.41. Improvement can be seen by the fact that he has won his last seven decisions with an ERA of 3.38, all at the Triple-A level.While those numbers are improving at Lehigh Valley, he still needs more work before being exposed to Major League hitting.Streaking HotJust 20 games into the season, the IronPig bats have been hot. The team already had a 13-game hit streak by infielder Taylor Featherston, who has currently hit in 15 of his last 16 games … Perkins currently is streaking with a 12-game hit streak ... Tommy Joseph has a seven-game hit streak. On the season, Joseph is batting .380 and leads the IronPigs with four homers, 10 RBIs, and a 1.124 OPS. In 32 games since Aug. 23 of last season, Joseph is batting .336, with five home runs, nine doubles and 18 RBIs at the Triple-A level … Outfield phenom Nick Williams is warming and has a five-game hit streak. The Phillies' No. 2 and Baseball America's No. 27 overall prospect is batting .476 (10-for-21) during that time.HomestandLehigh Valley starts an eight-game homestand tonight. The first four games are against the Buffalo Bisons followed by a four-game stint against Pawtucket.