A's show mercy in Lancaster rout

Modesto scored nine runs in the fifth inning en route to whipping Lancaster.

Yet Modesto's Jesus Basabe stood firmly anchored at third base.

Was Basabe's discretion due to fatigue from running out his third extra-base hit? Was he asleep at the switch? Did he miss a sign?

Or had things gotten so ridiculous that Modesto manager Bob Geren decided to not-so-sublimely take pity on the JetHawks by keeping Basabe on the short leash?

It was one of the few times Friday night the A's were put on any kind of leash. Not counting the one they wrapped around the JetHawks to unleash a 15-1 thrashing of Lancaster in front of 3,471 restless fans at The Hangar.

For the first time in three days, not only were there no free peanuts forthcoming for those fans - which brings Lancaster's franchise attendance total within 13,368 of 1 million - but those who stuck around to the bitter end were left with these shells:

The nine runs Modesto scored in the fifth inning blew open a 2-1 pitchers' duel between Modesto's flame-throwing 19-year-old right-hander Jesus Colome and Lancaster's Neil Longo.

Not only did the inning consume Longo (4 innings, five hits, eight runs, three walks), but it tied the season and franchise record for runs in an inning, one last established by Visalia on April 28.

"It was a matter of time, no doubt, with a club like that," Lancaster pitching coach Greg Harris said about Longo's four-inning tightrope act of pitches up in the strike zone. "He didn't make the adjustment and they did."

Modesto's nine extra-base hits, meanwhile, set a season high for a JetHawks opponent.

From the just-missed files, the JetHawks narrowly averted entering the record books for largest margin of defeat. The 14-run loss fell a run short of the 15-run defeat suffered against Stockton on May Day.

"Against this team, you can't get the ball up. It's a good-hitting team and he figured it out," Lancaster manager Darrin Garner said. "You have to make adjustments against this team. You have to keep them off-balance. If you don't keep them off-balance, they hit the ball and they hit the ball well."

Jason Hart hit the ball well. The Modesto first baseman went 3-for-5 with a second-inning solo homer, a two-run double during that fifth inning and an RBI double in the two-run sixth.

Basabe hit the ball well. The A's No. 9 hitter, who entered the game batting .195, also went 3-for-5. His damage was two doubles and a bases-clearing triple in the fifth.

That triple to the right-center gap would've stood out as the crown jewel in any inning. During the fifth, it was just one of six hits by one of 13 batters who came to the plate.

Omar Rosario hit the ball well. The Modesto right fielder went 4-for-6 with a pair of runs scored and an RBI.

"You're going to have games like this every now and then," said a resigned Garner.

Garner's frustration was focused as much toward Lancaster's struggling offense Friday night as it was the pounding his pitchers took. The JetHawks managed only five hits against Colome and relievers Darin Moore and Brad Moore.

Two of those came from Jermaine Clark, who accounted for the JetHawks' lone run when he opened the first with a double to the left-center gap, went to third on Alex Fernandez's groundout and scored on a passed ball.

Clark managed two of the three hits off Colome, who was clocked as high as 97 mph during his five-inning stint.

"You don't see people that throw that hard, especially in (Class) A ball," Clark said. "He threw pretty hard tonight. His windup was different, he kind of slinged the ball. But when someone throws that hard, you just have to try to put it in play."