By BRIAN ROBIN
Valley Press Staff Writer
LANCASTER - Turns out, Sean Spencer warned the wrong team.
Spencer took one look at the wind gusts heading out to right field and walked over to his Lancaster JetHawks teammate Joe Mays with a few words of advice.
"He said `Good luck with the wind,' " Mays said. "That does wonders with the confidence."
Turns out, Mays didn't need it. Not after dousing the Bakersfield Blaze over seven innings as the JetHawks rolled to an 8-1 victory and a sweep of the three-game series Monday night. The announced 3,418 fans who braved the brisk winds with blankets, sweatshirts and lettermen's jackets last seen in these parts before Memorial Day, watched the JetHawks (8-4) seal their third series sweep of the season.
Lancaster gets today off to reflect on this before entertaining Modesto Wednesday through Friday.
On a night where the three flags in left field were billowing strong enough to count the stars on the Stars and Stripes, Mays turned in his best outing of his brief Lancaster stint.
Courtesy of a eight-hit, eight-run shellacking he took against Rancho Cucamonga last Wednesday, Mays entered the game with a 10.13 ERA. But Monday, he allowed only one run and seven hits in seven innings.
Mays (2-1) struck out eight and walked only one, giving the JetHawks their third straight quality outing by a starting pitcher.
"I'm usually a low-ball pitcher, so I just threw the fastball down in the zone," said Mays, describing how he handled the Blaze in the wind. "You have to make sure your curveball is sharper, that it stays down."
Which his was. Mays breezed through the meat of the Bakersfield lineup, holding the dangerous Damon Minor, Brian Manning and Mike Glendenning to a combined 2-for-12.
Only Glendenning's second homer in as many nights - a solo shot over the right-field scoreboard with two-out in the fourth - spoiled the parade.
"He's a mistake hitter. He did the same thing to (Damaso) Marte yesterday," Mays said. "He likes to drive a ball up out to right field."
So does Minor, the designated JetHawk nemesis, who was held to a first-inning infield single.
Meanwhile, the JetHawks propped up Mays with three runs in the second, one in the fourth and two more in the fifth off Bakersfield's Jason Grote. Turns out, Grote needed Spencer's warning more than Mays. The Cal League's active ERA leader (2.42) walked six and was rocked for six hits and six runs in six innings.
Much of the damage came in the second, when Grote wild-pitched home Josh Watts (single, homer), allowed Tarrik Brock to score on Jason Regan's double-play grounder and yielded an RBI single to Joe Mathis.
Two innings later, Luis Molina sent home David Skeels (2-for-3) with a sacrifice fly.
An inning after that, Carlos Villalobos saw Glendenning's homer and raised him a run, smacking Grote's 2-2 pitch over the center-field wall. The hit chased home Regan, who celebrated his 21st birthday with a leadoff ground-rule double to left.
Watts finished the scoring, smacking a towering blast into the Avenue I freeway berm for his third homer since his midseason promotion to Lancaster.