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Sports - Modesto Nuts

Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009

Beerer's big night not enough for Nuts

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The collapse of the Modesto Nuts was so quick and discouraging Tuesday night that even the Faith Night crowd left early.

Staked to an early lead thanks to Scott Beerer's four RBIs on a homer and a triple, the Nuts were foiled by their ugliest half-inning of the season, a gift-wrapped six-run Lake Elsinore uprising that fueled the Storm's 11-6 win.

Because Visalia and Bakersfield also won, the magic numbers for the Nuts remained intact. Modesto needs a combination of three wins or Visalia losses to earn a playoff spot, and any mix of 10 wins and Bakersfield losses to enter the playoffs as the North Division's No. 2 seed.

With 12 games remaining, the postseason remains a virtual lock for Modesto. Yet when teams enter this point of the season, they're hoping for consistent quality play — something the Nuts certainly did not put on display.

Modesto carried a 6-2 lead into the sixth inning of what had been a very swiftly played game to that point. But as soon as starting pitcher Kenny Durst stopped throwing strikes, the game turned around.

He allowed a single and a walk to start the inning, then got two outs without incident. But when Durst issued another walk to load the bases — still leading 6-2 — Sean Jarrett entered in relief. Jarrett (4-4) walked in one run, and gave up a two-run single to No. 9 hitter Beemer Weems that tied the game 5-5.

Weems was caught in a rundown trying to steal second base with catcher Luis Martinez on third.

Martinez broke for home and was pinned in a rundown of his own, but managed to scramble safely back to third when the Nuts failed to make the tag.

Modesto paid for the mistake two pitches later when speedy leadoff hitter Brad Chalk hit a line drive to right-center that split the outfielders and rolled to the wall.

When rightfielder Brian Rike had trouble picking up the ball, and the relay throw home by second baseman Maikol Gonzalez sailed high, Chalk completed his circle around the bases with a game-breaking three-run, inside the park home run.

"It was a bad job coming out of the pen, and a bad job defensively when we had a chance to get out of the inning with the lead on that rundown," said Nuts manager Jerry Weinstein. "But more than anything, we walked three in that inning and you're not going to win games against good teams when you do that."

Beerer got the Nuts rolling with a two-run, no-doubt homer in the second inning, and a two-run triple to the scoreboard in left-center to highlight Modesto's three-run third inning.

The 5-0 lead was cut to 5-2 when the Storm scored twice on three hits in the fourth, but Modesto came back to score in the fifth on Brian Rike's two-out RBI single.

The deflated Nuts would collect only one baserunner the rest of the way.

• NUTS NOTES — Eric Young Jr., who patrolled second base for Modesto in 2007, made his major league debut with the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday in their 5-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. He started in center field and had a hit for the Rockies, who were forced to place former Modesto outfielder Dexter Fowler on the disabled list with a bruised knee cap...The Nuts, who in the offseason will be expanding their offices and souvenir store, will be offering a blowout sale during Saturday's game, with everything in the team store priced at $10. The sale will start when the gates for Saturday's game open at 6 p.m.