A's beat Lancaster with long ball and small ball

After four early home runs, Modesto finally took the lead and put Lancaster awry with four singles in the eighth inning.

By BRIAN ROBIN
Valley Press Staff Writer

LANCASTER - So this is what they mean by the dog days of summer. . .

Along with the Modesto A's, August officially came to The Hangar Monday night, bringing with it blast-furnace heat generated by Mother Nature and blast furnace heat generated by a three-game series with the Lancaster JetHawks' primary rival for a playoff spot.

Advantage. . . well, there isn't one today. Not after Modesto scored three times in the eighth inning to pull out an 8-4 victory over the JetHawks in the series opener Monday night.

It may be August 4, but the standings watch is up and running. Modesto's come-from-behind victory means the two teams are tied with 61-54 overall records in the battle for the Valley Division's wild-card playoff spot.

"Some of the softest hits can win games and some of the hardest hits can lose games," philosophized JetHawks center fielder Anton French, who took two hits away with highlight-film catches.

"They know we were a game up in the wild-card race going into today," said Lancaster manager Rick Burleson, about the team's awareness of what this series means. "They're aware of how many games we have left and we need to win each series."

Modesto took French's musings literally.

The A's teed up three JetHawk pitchers for 12 hits, hitting three home runs to stay in the game and putting Lancaster away with four singles in the eighth inning.

"We played the game for six innings tonight. Modesto played it for nine," Burleson said. "They outscored us 4-0 over the last three innings and basically outpitched us as well as outhit us.

"We match up pretty evenly, so the team that isn't going to make mistakes and make the pitches is going to win."

And so went Monday night's game, one in which the JetHawks wasted a 4-for-4, two-double night from Chris Dean and yet another episode in the offensive saga that is Greg Connors' second stint with the JetHawks.

In this one, Connors went 3-for-4, scored three times and missed the cycle by a home run. He and Dean combined for seven of Lancaster's 11 hits.

All that got the JetHawks was the lead. They couldn't keep it.

Lancaster wasted leads of 1-0, 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3. Leads erased courtesy of the home run.

Four of them, to be exact. A two-run homer by Hipolito Martinez in the fifth took care of the 2-0 lead, Adam Piatt's one-out solo homer in the sixth erased the 3-2 cushion. And Martinez's second homer - a solo blast in the seventh - did the trick to the 4-3 edge.

Lancaster reliever John Kelly, who came on in relief of starter Brian Fuentes in the seventh, can thank French for the fact that Martinez's second homer in as many trips didn't put Modesto ahead. One batter earlier, French robbed Caonabo Cosme of certain extra bases with a diving catch in leftcenter.

French couldn't get Martinez's ball until it bounced off the right shuttle standard on the leftfield scoreboard. When he retrieved the home run ball, French took a page from the Bleacher Bums at Wrigley Field in Chicago and threw it over the fence onto Avenue I.

Not even French's acrobatics could save Kelly in the eighth. He retired two of the first three batters he faced in the eighth before the roof caved in.

Singles by Monty Davis, Todd Mensik and Cosme followed. None of the three hits were hit particularly hard.

"He broke the guy's bat after one out," said Burleson about Piatt's one-out single. "He got the next guy out, then gave up a ground ball between first and second. We're guarding against doubles and he just placed it perfectly between first and second.

"Now, it's first and second and Mensik hit a line-drive single that would have given them the lead. We had to concede one run, but we tried to throw the ball to the plate and everyone was able to move up two bases. . . If the throw goes where it's supposed to go, they only end up with two runs that inning."