By CHRIS BRANAM
Staff Writer
LANCASTER - Plop, plop, fizz, fizz . . fizzle.
The Lancaster JetHawks' bullpen couldn't hold a four-run lead against the Modesto A's Tuesday night at The Hangar, and it looked like the JetHawks would lose their fifth in a row at press time.
In the bottom of the eighth, the A's led 9-7. David Newhan, who hit two homers in a game last week to spark an A's comeback from an eight-run deficit against Lancaster, was at it again.
Newhan hit his 17th homer, a three-run drive to center field, off Eric Morgan in the eighth that turned a 7-6 JetHawks lead into a deficit.
The A's came into the game as the hottest team in the Northern Division, winners of four in a row and sitting in first place at 26-13.
The JetHawks, however, have been either alone or tied for last place in the Southern Division since the middle of July and carried a four-game losing streak into Tuesday's game.
Lancaster starter Marino Santana walked David Newhan to lead off the game and with one out and gave up a two-run homer to Mike Neill that bounced off the bottom of the scoreboard in left field.
Neill's homer was his 16th and Modesto's 141st of the season. The A's are on pace to break the Cal League record for homers in a season (Visalia had 201 in 1971).
But the JetHawks used the long ball to tie the game in the second.
Modesto starter Chris Nelson, who Lancaster raked for 12 hits and seven runs in 4 2/3 innings last week, gave up a leadoff single to Scott Smith and with one out, Carlos Villalobos hit an 0-1 pitch over the wall in right-center field, his fifth homer of the season.
All of Villalobos' homers this year have been at home.
Smith rebounded from two hitless games in San Jose with a tworun homer in the third that capped a three-run JetHawks rally that gave them a 5-2 lead.
After Shane Monahan singled and scored on Jesus Marquez's double into the Lancaster bullpen down the right field line, Smith hit his seventh homer as a JetHawk to nearly the same place as Villalobos'.
The inning could have been worse for Modesto had not Lancaster's Chris Dean missed second base on what Dean thought was a triple.
The A's threw to second as Dean stood at third, and home plate umpire Scott Higgins immediately called Dean out.
The A's came back with a run in the fourth on Jose Castro's sacrifice fly, and Lancaster led 5-3.
But Santana didn't buckle as the JetHawks scored twice more in the next two innings to give him a 7-3 lead.
He struck out the side in the fifth and got a little help from his defense in the sixth.
Modesto's Gary Hust was thrown out by right fielder Jesus Marquez as he tried to take third with two outs on Danny Ardoin's single.
While Santana rebounded from a loss last week at Modesto, Nelson gave up eight hits and six runs in four innings.