In Lancaster's hitter-friendly park, Martinez is a hungry, hungry Hipo

Hipolito Martinez hit two home runs for the second consecutive night as Modesto moved one game head of Lancaster for the Valley Division wildcard berth

After the way he's played at Lancaster Municipal Stadium, he'll never want to leave town.

Martinez hit two home runs for the second consecutive night to secure Modesto's 12-6 victory over the Lancaster JetHawks Tuesday in front of 2,709 fans at The Hangar.

"I love this park," Martinez said with a big smile.

With the win, Modesto moved one game ahead of Lancaster in the race for the Valley Division's wild-card berth in the playoffs. The A's have a 62-54 mark overall this season, while Lancaster fell to 61-55.

"We're dealing with the cards we've been dealt," JetHawks manager Rick Burleson said. "If that's not good enough, than it's not going to be enough. Guys are still trying hard."

The JetHawks also have lost five straight to Modesto, a team they beat in seven of their first nine meetings. The A's now hold a 10-9 advantage in the season series, which wraps up tonight at The Hangar.

That's exactly where Martinez would like to play all 140 games.

"I feel very comfortable at the plate here," Martinez said.

In the nine times the 6-foot-1, 170-pound outfielder from Bani, Dominican Republic, has taken the field in Lancaster this season, he's gone 14-for-37 (.378) with 12 runs scored and 15 RBI.

He's also belted two doubles and five home runs.

Against the rest of the league, Martinez has hit .212 (47-for-222) with 26 runs scored and 25 RBI. More surprisingly, he has touched the rest of the Cal League for only one home run.

He doubled that number in the A's 8-4 victory over Lancaster Monday and matched the feat Tuesday.

After striking out in his first atbat Tuesday in the second inning, Martinez came to the plate with two men on base, one batter after Caonabo Cosme's groundrule double gave the A's a 6-2 lead.

Martinez cushioned the Modesto advantage, when he swatted the first pitch from starter Julio Ayala over the left-center field wall for a three-run home run.

He waited for a 2-0 count against reliever Justin Kaye in the top of the fifth, smacking a solo blast inside the left-field foul pole. His fourth home run in two days gave Modesto a comfortable 10-3 advantage.

In the first two games of the series, Martinez, who batted in the eight hole Tuesday, went 5-for-9 with five runs scored and seven RBI.

"They had some guys that caused us troubles earlier in the year," Burleson said. "Now its Cosme and Martinez that have contributed both nights against us."

The A's also used a three-run homer from Rodney Clifton in the second inning to take control of the game.

While the A's effectively managed to drive in important runs, the Lancaster offense failed to put together the big inning.

"We couldn't get the real big hits a couple of times tonight," Burleson said.

The JetHawks scored single runs in the first, second, fourth and fifth, but quickly found themselves out of the game.

And just when they seemed to be crawling back into the game in the sixth, they left the bases loaded. The JetHawks sent eight batters to the plate, but only Giomar Guevara's RBI single and Greg Connors' bases-loaded walk drove in runs.

In all, the JetHawks left 11 runners on base in the game.

Unfortunately that wasn't Lancaster's only problem, as the defense made a number of costly mental mistakes and Ayala (9-6) allowed nine hits in the first three innings while taking his fourth loss in his last five decisions.

"There's a whole gauntlet of things that we need to do better," Burleson said. "We play some pretty good teams in the next couple of weeks, so we better start doing it."