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Sports - Modesto Nuts

Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009

Nuts win, but didn't realize they also clinched

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The Modesto Nuts went to the clubhouse as a group ready to celebrate the clinching of a wild-card berth.

But despite having done their jobs on the field Friday night with a 6-2 victory over Bakersfield in front of 5,292 — the second-largest crowd in Modesto minor league history — the popping of the non-alcoholic bubbly liquids was put on hold.

After the Nuts had gone home, the Stockton Ports blew a four-run lead in the ninth inning to lose 8-7 and hand the Nuts their ticket to the California League playoffs.

But the Nuts are focused on a larger prize than merely getting into the post-season — the No. 2 seed and first-round homefield advantage that would come by finishing with a better overall record than Bakersfield. That's where Friday's win came into play.

The Nuts had a 4-0 lead just 11 pitches into their first inning at-bat, and Brian Billings made it stand up with seven innings of one-hit shutout pitching.

There's a new magic number to track. With nine games left, including two more head-to-head with the Blaze, the Nuts' number to clinch the No. 2 seed is 6.

For several reasons, getting homefield advantage over the Blaze would be a huge, well, advantage.

First, the Nuts end the regular season on Monday, Sept. 7, at High Desert. The first game of the playoffs will be Sept. 9 at the No. 3 seed. So if the Nuts win the No. 2 seed, they'd simply play the game in Bakersfield on their way home from Adelanto, adding a full day of rest to the end of the schedule.

The second positive would be not having to play more than one game at Historic Sam Lynn Ballpark, for which a more fitting name would start with the word Prehistoric — as in, built before modern sanitary standards were established for clubhouses. The Nuts players, adhering to baseball protocol, won't badmouth any ballpark. But it's no secret no one likes to play there.

Then, of course, the Nuts would get to play a Game 2, and (if needed) a Game 3 at Thurman Field, where they have the third-best home record in the league at 44-24.

"We love playing in front of the home crowd here and the locker room in Bakersfield is a place we would like to stay away from," Billings said.

The fastest start of the season put the Nuts and Billings in control before many of the crowd reached their seats.

Blaze starter Richard Bleier (7-10) gave up infield singles to Charlie Blackmon and Jason Van Kooten to open the game, then Hector Gomez blooped an RBI single to right-center on Bleier's sixth pitch. Scott Beerer liked the first pitch he saw and drilled a two-run triple into the right field corner for a 3-0 lead.

Jay Cox followed with a relative marathon of an at-bat, looking at three pitches before lofting a long sacrifice fly to right-center for a 4-0 lead.

"It's very important to jump out early," said Beerer, who has driven-in 28 runs in 43 games with Modesto. "You get their pitcher down, and it was important for us because we hadn't been swinging the bats well the last few nights. To set a tempo and get some confidence back was good."

Craig Baker worked a perfect ninth in a non-save situation, giving the huge crowd one more reason to cheer before the fireworks began.

"It was nice seeing a big crowd like that," Beerer said. "It energized us and we know the position we're in, trying to get the homefield advantage. We'd like to have to just play one game in Bakersfield."

• NOTES — Turlock High and Fresno State grad Tommy Mendonca was greeted with cheers every time his name was mentioned, but went hitless in four at-bats ... Modesto now has drawn 160,268 fans through 67 home dates, just 4,038 behind the franchise season record of 164,306 set last year. The home portion of the Nuts' regular season ends with games tonight (7:05 p.m.) and Sunday (6:05 p.m.) against the Blaze.

Bee staff writer Brian VanderBeek can be reached at bvanderbeek@modbee.com or 578-2300.