[July 15, 2011] Nuts get very sloppy before losing 9-7 to 66ers in 12 innings Tweet Jul 15, 2011 (The Modesto Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Quick, before anyone gets hold of the tape of Thursday's top of the eighth inning, the Modesto Nuts should burn it. There's no way any evidence of the worst three minutes in Modesto baseball history should exist -- outside of this story, of course. The Nuts rallied to score four in the eighth to send the game into extra innings tied at 7-7, and Inland Empire eventually won 9-7 in 12 innings, with the final out occurring four hours, 15 minutes after the first pitch. Yet Modesto's wild rally and the extended play would not have been needed had the Nuts not gone glove-dead in the most inexplicable way possible. The 66ers led 3-2 in the top of the eighth and had the bases loaded with two outs when Nuts' catcher Jose Gonzalez tried to throw behind the runner at third base. Instead, the ball seemed to stick in his fingers, as if he tried to stop in mid-throw, only to have the ball squirt out and fly scud-like on two hops directly into the third-base dugout. By rule, that's a two-base error, and two Inland runners did their best to avoid eye contact as they passed by Gonzalez after touching home. A few pitches later Jose Jimenez ended the at bat by hitting a routine fly ball to left field, where Eliezer Mesa camped under it and had it clank off his glove in classic Charlie Brown fashion to score the third unearned run of the at-bat. Suddenly trailing 7-3, the Nuts bunched four hits and a walk in the bottom of the eighth to forge the tie. Jared Clark had a two-run double, while Kent Matthes and Mesa added RBI singles during the rally. The Nuts, who outhit the 66ers 12-6 through 10 innings, left the bases loaded in the 10th. The Sixers' game-winning rally came off Will Harris (1-2,) who was roughed up for five runs in an inning of work in the series opener. This time, he issued two one-out walks ahead of an infield single, then got ahead of Jose Jimenez 0-2 before the Inland catcher worked the count full and fouled off two pitches before spanking a two-run single to right. The wild scoring at the end overshadowed what had been a good pitching duel between Modesto's Chad Bettis and Inland Empire's Ariel Pena, two of the three top strikeout pitchers in the California League. Bettis gave up three runs in a shaky third inning, but lasted 7 1/3 innings, allowing five hits while striking out six. Pena went 5 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on five hits with seven strikeouts. Bee staff writer Brian VanderBeek can be reached at [email protected] or (209) 578-2300. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/modestobeek. To see more of The Modesto Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.modbee.com/. Copyright (c) 2011, The Modesto Bee, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]