JETHAWKS NOTEBOOK: DREW HAS EVENTFUL FIRST GAME.

Byline: Gideon Rubin Staff Writer

BAKERSFIELD - Stephen Drew's propensity for making plays is a big reason he's considered one of the most exciting players in minor-league baseball.

That propensity worked against the new JetHawks shortstop on one play in his debut for the team Tuesday, but he eventually scored the game-winning run for Lancaster in the top of the ninth inning of a 6-5 victory over the Bakersfield Blaze.

With two outs and the tying run at second in the bottom of the eighth inning of a 5-4 game, Drew, by his own admission, made the mistake of being overly aggressive in charging a chopper off the bat of Bakersfield's Kevin Mahar. The ball took a bad hop and bounced past him for a game-tying, run-scoring single.

``I should have just taken it off my chest,'' Drew said.

Drew led off ninth with a single to right field and eventually scored the game-winning run on Edgar Varela's two-out single to right.

``It felt great,'' Drew said. ``It's exciting to get back out there and get back to playing. Hopefully we can keep winning.''

Drew was assigned to Lancaster last week after ending a year-long holdout with the JetHawks' parent club Arizona Diamondbacks by agreeing to a five-year contract worth $5.5 million.

Drew was 2 for 3 with two walks and a strikeout. As the game's designated ``beer batter,'' fans celebrated his strikeout in the sixth inning with dollar beers.

Drew walked in his first two plate appearances. He lined a 3-2 single up the middle in the fifth for his first professional hit.

``I thought Drew looked outstanding,'' JetHawks manager Bill Plummer said.

Mahar's bouncer was the first ball hit to him all game.

``That was a tough, tough play, especially the first ball hit to you all night,'' Plummer said, ``but he's got to stop and keep it in front of him with the tying run (at second). He thought he had a chance to block it off his chest, but he came in a little too hard to do that.''

--Found it: JetHawks starter Chad Scarbery showed no signs of rust while pitching for the first time in three weeks Tuesday after serving a 15-game suspension for violating baseball's performance-enhancing drug rules.

Pitching in front of several family members, who live about 90 minutes away in Fresno, Scarbery allowed two runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out seven batters and allowed four walks.

Perhaps more importantly Scarbery said he thought he had the best command of his slider he's had all year.

``I guess I could work on it more (pitching) in a simulated game because it didn't really matter what I did,'' Scarbery said. ``That's when I started finding it.''

Scarbery said he hopes refining a hard-breaking slider during his down time is a positive he can take out of the experience.

``It wasn't fun missing starts, but I'm glad to be back,'' Scarbery said. ``It's over now.''

--Odds and ends: Infielder Ramon Downing was placed on the inactive list and was assigned to the Diamondbacks' short-season Yakima (Wash.) affiliate. He'll remain with the JetHawks for the rest of their six-game Northern Division road trip before going to a minicamp in Missoula, Mont., next week. ... Shortstop Danny Richar, who lost his everyday shortstop position to Drew, was slated to make his first center-field start on Wednesday. ... The JetHawks (33-26) remained in a virtual tie for first place with Lake Elsinore (32-25) after the Storm defeated San Jose 10-5 on Tuesday. The JetHawks trailed the Storm by just percentage points going into Wednesday's games. ... The JetHawks had lost 17 of their previous 21 games at Bakersfield going back to 2000 before Tuesday's victory. ... Tuesday's win was the JetHawks' 10th in their last 13 games.

Gideon Rubin, [phone]

gideon.rubin(at)dailynews.com