Murphy turns it around, so do Kernels

CEDAR RAPIDS - How much have Max Murphy's fortunes changed this month?

The Cedar Rapids Kernels left fielder dove head first for a sinking line drive in the fifth inning Monday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium but missed it. The ball bounced past him and all the way to the wall, as Peoria's Darren Seferina 100-metered his way around the bases.

Murphy picked himself up, retrieved the baseball and fired it to cut-off man Nick Gordon, who rifled a throw to the plate to end Seferina's bid for an inside-the-park home run. Crisis averted for everyone.

'I was thinking about diving, and I kind of slipped a little bit,” Murphy said with a smile, after the Kernels' 3-1 win before 1,627 fans. 'I started going down, and I was like ‘OK, I guess I'm diving. I'd better stop the ball.' But I missed it. Then it was just run to go get it. It worked out.”

As it has all May for the 22-year-old from the Twin Cities and Bradley University. Earlier in the day, he was named the Midwest League's Player of the Week for a six-game stretch in which he was 10-for-25 with nine RBIs.

Murphy went 2-for-4 with a run batted in here as the Kernels (20-11) won their seventh straight. He has his season batting average up to .259 after a very rough April that saw him hit just .179.

'It was pretty rough that first month, terrible to go through,” Murphy said. 'That was pretty much the worst month of my baseball life, by far. It was not fun.”

Murphy was a ninth-round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins last June, tore up Rookie ball and spent the final month-plus in Cedar Rapids. It was expected he'd have a good season, and he still might judging by this recent tear.

'I think he stopped trying to pull everything,” said Kernels Manager Jake Mauer. 'He keeps that approach, up the middle, then he doesn't lose the barrel. He can stay on pitches longer. That's what we need him to do. He's doing what we kind of anticpiated him doing at the beginning of the year. Be that anchor in the middle of the lineup, take good at-bats. Hopefully he keeps coming up with guys all over the bases.”

Starting pitcher Jared Wilson improved to 4-0 by constantly dodging his way out of trouble over his five innings of work. He didn't allow a run, somehow negotiating his way out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the third.

Randy LeBlanc threw the sixth and seventh innings, giving up a run but stranding five Chiefs. Trevor Hildenberger retired all six guys he faced for his fourth save.

This has been quite an about face for a team that left home on a six-game road trip to Wisconsin and Beloit with a severe limp. The teams play again Tuesday night at 6:35.

Before the game, the Kernels and Twins announced infielder Jonatan Hinojosa has been sent to extended spring training in Florida and replaced on the roster by infielder Blake Schmit from EST. Hinojosa hit .154 in 18 games.

Schmit is another Twin Cities native who was a 26th-round draft pick of the Twins last year out of the University of Maryland.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com