Modesto Nuts stifle Visalia

With the best fastball in the California League, a 98 mph blazer he's able to maintain for the length of his starts, Modesto ace Chad Bettis is a thoroughbred.

For the rest of the season he'll be competing as a quarter horse.

In Sunday's 6-1 victory over Visalia on Sunday, Bettis went five strong innings, throwing 82 pitches and facing the minimum 14 hitters over the last 4 2/3 innings.

And then he was done.

Just as the parent Colorado Rockies did with Jhoulys Chacin in Modesto in 2008, Bettis is facing a five-inning limit for his remaining two scheduled starts of the regular season and perhaps will take the limitation into the playoffs.

Chacin was upset over being limited three years ago, and on one occasion fired his glove into the dugout after throwing five innings of one-hit, shutout ball, knowing he wasn't going back out for the sixth. He was pitching in the majors less than a year later.

Bettis, a 2010 draft pick in his first full professional season, said he understands the reasons for restricting his innings and certainly wouldn't mind if his pace of progress matches that of Chacin.

But as a high-level competitor it doesn't mean he has to be happy about it.

"What I don't understand is that, in the big scheme of things, whether me going five or six is going to make a difference, but we're going to sit down and get all of that worked out," said Bettis, who is 12-5 this season and 8-1 with a 2.25 ERA since the All-Star break.

"It's going to be interesting to see what their reasons are for a lot of stuff. I don't know why they would limit me to five and whether this is going to stay on through the playoffs. There are a lot of questions that need to be worked out."

These kinds of decisions always are made at the corporate office in Denver, deep inside the recesses of Coors Field. From there the word is relayed to Nuts manager Jerry Weinstein, where it must be treated as gospel.

"The people up the pay grade are going to let us know how they want to handle it," Weinstein said. "It may be that he will be limited the rest of the way and it may not. They just want to keep him under a certain inning limit to protect his arm."

Weinstein and pitching coach Darryl Scott needed to decide when to inform Bettis of his new limit. They could have told him before the game and — knowing his inner fire — risk an early-inning blowout.

The other option was to wait until after he left the mound after the fourth inning, which by the way was a nine-pitch breeze.

"It would have changed me a little bit had they told me before the game," Bettis said. "I would have been aggravated going out to start the game and still this irate after the game."

That's also when they told the bullpen to get ready for four innings of work. Chad Rose got the call.

"They came down in the fourth and told me to get ready to pitch the sixth," Rose said. "I asked 'for what?' because Bettis is a guy who goes seven innings every time out. We were told right there that they were going to limit him. They gave us an inning of warning on that."

At the time, the Nuts' lead was 3-1. Visalia got two of its three hits off Bettis in the first inning to score their run, but Modesto bunched four hits in the second to answer with three. Carlos Martinez had a two-run single and Delta Cleary followed with an RBI single.

Rose, in going three innings for the second time in his last three appearances, allowed only two baserunners while striking out three, holding the two-run lead.

Modesto broke open the win in the bottom of the eighth, loading the bases ahead of Nolan Arenado's two-out, three-run, pinch-hit double to right. Arenado hadn't missed a start since June 7 and was given a day off, but added to his RBI total nonetheless. He has 111 RBIs to lead all of professional baseball.

Above all, Bettis expressed concern that needing extra scheduled work out of the bullpen might disrupt the flow the Nuts have established in the second half. Modesto has won 24 of its last 31 games to moved 2½ games ahead of San Jose in the second-half race.

"We're playing great as a team and it's nice to see everyone coming together," Bettis said. "Everything is clicking and that's what we're trying to do for these last 14 games."

Yes, all that's left of the regular season is 14 games — a sprint to the finish perfect for any kind of race horse.

Bee staff writer Brian VanderBeek can be reached at (209) 578-2150. Follow him at http://twitter.com/modestobeek.