By CHRIS BRANAM
Staff Writer
LANCASTER - John Thompson tried to change his fortunes two months ago when he changed his uniform number.
That worked, for a little while.
Thompson reinvented himself again Thursday night, and this one threw the Modesto A's for a curve.
More appropriately, a slider, because that's what Thompson used to close out a 6-5 Lancaster JetHawks victory in front of 4,313 at The Hangar.
"I was a pitcher tonight," Thompson said after the game. "Not a thrower like usual."
Shane Monahan hit a dramatic ground-rule double to drive home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth, the last of three doubles the JetHawks hit in a two-run rally after they had gone down 5-4.
That left it up to Thompson, who had gotten the last out in Modesto's four-run eighth.
Throwing more off-speed pitches than usual, Thompson sandwiched strikeouts around Jose Castro's single.
Of the 22 pitches Thompson threw, nearly half (10) were sliders.
Thompson probably hadn't thrown that many breaking pitches in the month of July.
"I think (the A's) were surprised," Thompson said. "They really couldn't sit on anything."
Castro tried to steal second with two outs and David Newhan at the plate in the ninth, and Lancaster catcher Scot Sealy threw him out to end the game.
"I knew they were going to try to get (Castro) to second," Sealy said. "I was able to get (the throw) low and (Mike) Lanza picked it."
But Thompson, who improved to 2-6, had a hand in the caught stealing, too.
Before the game, he worked on cutting down his wind-up to home plate with pitching coach Juan Eichelberger.
"I kind of shut down Castro there at the end," Thompson said.
Monahan's two-out hit drove home Sealy, who had doubled home Chris Dean to tie the game at five.
Mixed into the rally was a crucial error by the shortstop Castro, who couldn't handle a grounder hit by Lanza that allowed Monahan to hit.
It was Castro's third error of the game.
After blowing several opportunities to score in the first four innings, the JetHawks broke through in a big way in the sixth.
Scott Smith hit a leadoff homer against Modesto starter Miguel Jimenez to tie the game at one.
With one out, Jimenez hit Dean and gave up a single to Doug Carroll.
After Sealy struck out, up stepped Lanza, who drove a 1-1 pitch over the left-field wall for his second homer of the season, and first since April 11, to give the JetHawks a 4-1 lead.
In his first two professional seasons, Lanza hit three homers.
But Lanza's heroics would go by the wayside in the eighth.
Greg Wooten, a winner in four of his seven Lancaster outings, took a three-run lead into the inning and left down by one.
After giving up six hits, but only one run in the first seven innings, Wooten started the eighth by giving up back-to-back singles to Wilfredo Ventura and Newhan.
After a fly out, Mike Neill drove in Ventura with an RBI single to left, cutting the lead to 4-2.
With Wooten running on fumes, Emil Brown hit a single to right field that was booted by Jesus Marquez, allowing not only Newhan to score but Neill as well, tying the game, 4-4.
The A's moved ahead on D.T. Cromer's RBI groundout, Cromer's 99th RBI of the season.
It wasn't Jimenez's pitching, but a base-running blunder, that kept the JetHawks from scoring in the fifth.
Sealy reached first on an error by Castro and went to second on a base hit by Lanza.
After an out, both runners moved up on Carlos Villalobos' bloop single into right, sending Marquez, the team's RBI leader with 88, to the plate.
Marquez responded with a fly ball to medium depth in center field that was caught by Brown.
An easy run for the JetHawks with Sealy tagging at third, right?
Wrong. Villalobos decided to tag up and try to reach second, and he was thrown out by Emil Brown before Sealy crossed home with the potential tying run.