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Sports - Modesto Nuts

Monday, Aug. 31, 2009

Nuts still looking sluggish

Modesto hopes to find offense before the playoffs begin

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With a playoff berth in hand, the Modesto Nuts had a chance to make a statement in this four-game series against Bakersfield — their first-round playoff foe.

Four wins would have been a bold claim of domination. Three wins would have all but locked up first-round homefield advantage and two wins would have — at least — garnered Modesto the tiebreaker should the teams finish the regular season with identical records.

But Sunday's 8-4 Blaze win gave Bakersfield three wins in the series and sent a message of a different sort — a strong statement that the Blaze intend to be favored when the teams meet next week in their best-of-three series.

Modesto goes on the road for seven games to finish the regular season, and does so with a two-game lead over the Blaze in the race for the top wild-card seed.

But Bakersfield — which punched its playoff ticket with the win — is the hottest team in the California League, and by taking three of four at John Thurman Field continued a streak in which it has won 18 of 22 games.

"It starts with pitching for us," said Blaze manager Steve Buechele. "The starters have been great and the bullpen has been pretty good for the most part.

"We've also lived and died this year with our offense. We tend to strike out a lot but when we get hot we tend to be a real contagious group and it catches on quick. We've swung the bat well during this run."

Sunday, Bakersfield got both pitching and hitting.

Starter Tanner Roark (9-0) held the Nuts to two runs on three hits in a very strong seven-inning effort. He kept Modesto's bats silent long enough for the Blaze offense to connect against Modesto starter Kenny Durst (4-13,) who gave up six runs on eight hits over six innings.

The Blaze took control in the fourth inning, scoring three runs on four straight hits after two outs. Tim Rodriguez had the big hit, a two-run single to break a 1-1 tie.

Davis Stoneburner launched a two-run homer off the scoreboard in the sixth off Durst to make it 6-1. Modesto scored once in the sixth on Jeff Cunningham's sacrifice fly and added two more in the eighth on Hector Gomez's RBI triple and Scott Beerer's single.

But the Nuts' six-hit attack was not going to get the job done, and Modesto now has seven road games to try to find the lost groove.

There is a bright side to Modesto's situation. With the playoff berth in hand, the Nuts will be able to start juggling their pitchers to allow them to open the playoffs at the top of the rotation.

When the playoffs start, Cory Riordan (11-7, 3.85) will pitch the first game in the best-of-three series on Sept. 9 and will be followed the next night by Christian Friedrich (3-2, 2,05.) The third playoff game, which either would be the third game of the first round on Sept. 11 or the first game of the best-of-five second round at San Jose on Sept. 13, would be started by Bruce Billings (6-9, 3.91). Ethan Hollingsworth and Kenny Durst round out the rotation.

Riordan, Friedrich and Billings will throw regular outings the Tuesday-Thursday when Modesto visits Lake Elsinore.

Then, when the Nuts close the regular season with four games at High Desert Friday-Monday, Riordan will throw one inning on Sunday and Friedrich will throw one inning on Monday.

Holding the starters back could have an impact on homefield advantage in that first round, if it's against Bakersfield, but Weinstein said that's not a concern.

"We're not changing anything we do with our pitchers in order to get homefield," Weinstein said. "It's more important to throw our best guys than to have the homefield advantage."

NUTS NOTES — For the record, the official playoff-clinching celebration has been put on hold by the Modesto Nuts. To their great credit, no one chose to pop the corks after Saturday night's five-error, 8-5 loss in 12 innings to the Blaze that Jerry Weinstein called one of the team's poorest performances of the season. ... Bakersfield's three-run 12th inning on Saturday started when Turlock's Tommy Mendonca singled off Beyer High graduate Chris Malone. Malone went on to hit the next two Blaze batters and give up a two-run single to Jose Felix before getting the first out of the inning. Mendonca went 4-for-6 in the game and finished the series 5-for-16 to make a splash in his first four games with the Blaze. ... The Sept. 13 playoff game at San Jose has been moved to a 2 p.m. start to accommodate the traffic for that night's San Jose State football home opener against Utah, a 7:30 kickoff.

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