Quakes best rival Sixers again

SAN BERNARDINO - The Quakes haven't had the best season, and the recent stretch in which the team has lost eight of 11 series has done nothing to help matters.

But there's been one constant, one cure for what ails the Quakes: facing the county rival 66ers.

The Quakes bit the Sixers' bullpen for five runs and eight hits in the late innings Sunday night, leading them to a 7-2 victory and another series win at Arrowhead Credit Union Stadium.

It may be just three series wins out of the last 11 for the Quakes, but each has come at the expense of the Sixers.

"I don't know what it is," Sixers manager Gary Thurman said. "You have teams some years that just beat up on another team. And it seems like they've gotten the better of us this year."

In improving to 12-6 against the Sixers, the Quakes (13-17, 45-55) needed a strong pitching performance from Nick Adenhart, who was coming off a rough outing in which he yielded seven earned runs in a loss to Stockton.

Adenhart came through, giving up two runs over seven innings on seven hits. But Sixers starter Aaron Jensen, who came into the came with an ugly 1-6 record with a 7.51 ERA, was also solid in his six innings, allowing two runs and four hits.

"I know (Jensen) has struggled a little bit, but he was sharper than I've seen him," Quakes manager Bobby Mitchell said. "He set them down for a while."

The Sixers' bullpen couldn't keep it at a 2-2 tie Jensen left behind. In the seventh inning, Sean Rodriguez dumped a key two-out double near the right-field line, and Cody Fuller came through an inning later with a two-run triple near the same spot.

The seventh inning runs were particularly painful for the Sixers (14-14, 53-45), since reliever Jon Lockwood nearly

wiggled out of a jam with back-to-back infield dribblers that resulted in rundowns between third and home.

Both times, the runner on third was caught trying to score, an unusual sequence since the plays mirrored each other closely.

"If I've seen it before, I don't remember it," Thurman said of the consecutive rundowns at home, adding that Rodriguez's double one batter later "was like going from on top of the mountain into the canyon. It was a huge momentum shift."

Despite Sunday's result, it seems odd that the Quakes could win two-thirds of their games against one team while playing sub-.500 baseball overall. Mitchell said that just like in basketball or football, baseball teams can get good matchups against each other.

"One thing is it depends on what type of pitchers they have," he said. "We don't hit soft-throwing lefties very well, for example, and Visalia has two good ones."

The Sixers, Mitchell added, don't have many left-handed arms in the first place to offset a Quakes roster stacked with lefty bats.

Coupled with High Desert's victory Sunday, the Sixers dropped into third place in the Cal League's South Division. The Quakes remained in last place, but are just 4“ games behind Lake Elsinore.

Next up for the Quakes is a trip to face the first-place Storm, while the Sixers hit the road at Lancaster looking to change their luck away from home this season.

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Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

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