A's get major lift from Olivares

Omar Olivares, on a rehabilitation assignment from the Oakland Athletics, retired all six batters he faced and Jon Adkins went five strong innings to lead the A's.

The loss is the second in a row for the JetHawks (27-8, 67-38) and fifth in the month of July, as they only collected three hits on the night.

Olivares needed just 19 pitches Friday in his two innings of work and his performance seemed to disrupt the struggling JetHawks offense before a crowd of 2,590 at John Thurman Field.

"My arm felt really good," Olivares said after he had finished working. "I was able to throw strikes without any pain."

In his nine-year career, Olivares, who could have thrown 40 pitches and an additional 20 in the bullpen, has spent time in both Detroit and Philadelphia with JetHawks manager Mark Parent.

"Even with Olivares we weren't aggressive," Parent said. "Over the past week or so, we've taken so many fastballs at the plate that it's ridiculous.

"It looked like they were keyed up for Olivares and then shut it down after that.

"This is one of the worst games I've seen from them in a long time."

Jon Adkins relieved Olivares to start the top of the third. Adkins went five innings to notch his first win in an A's uniform in his second appearance with the club.

Adkins spent the better part of this year in instructional league, rehabbing from "Tommy John" surgery on his right elbow, performed last fall.

The first batter Adkins faced, Peanut Williams, walked to start the third and would later score on a ground ball by Antonio Perez, putting Lancaster up 1-0.

Modesto responded in a big way in the bottom of the fourth, scoring five runs off of JetHawks starter Melqui Torres (3-4).

"Melqui was aggressive early on, when there was no one on base," pitching coach Scott Budner said. "As soon as he started walking guys and giving up hits, he lost it."

Jon Schaeffer did the bulk of the damage with a bases-clearing triple after Torres had walked two batterr to start the inning.

Schaeffer also scored on the play after Perez's cutoff throw sailed wide of third, posting Modesto to a 4-1 lead.

The JetHawks' defense committed two errors Friday, and all contributed to A's rallies.

"We had guys overthrowing balls all over the field," Parent said. "We were swinging at bad pitches and had bad baserunning. We ran the gamut on bone-headed plays tonight.

"It baffles me that we can play so well at times and then become so non-aggressive."

The offense struggled, not just to produce runs, but even to get men on base. Williams was the big producer of baserunners, singling and walking twice.

After Williams, Lancaster placed three runners on base. Conversely, Lancaster walked 11 batters and gave up 10 hits.

"The walks, the hit-by-pitches," Parent said, "that's what we've done to teams all year to win games and now were letting them do it to us.

"We're getting slapped and not getting up to slap them back."

Uploaded July 29, 2000