Garver hits three homers as Kernels roll past Fort Wayne

CEDAR RAPIDS – The new color will be ...

'I think I'm going to go with neon yellow,” Mitch Garver said Monday afternoon. 'Something like that. Maybe purple.”

The Cedar Rapids Kernels catcher began a home run club with teammate Bryan Haar early in the Midwest League season. You get to a certain number of bombs, you get a new pair of socks to wear for games.

Your first homer meant orange. You go for five, you wear blue. Haar went with black when he became the first Kernel to surpass 10 long balls.

Now it's got to be Garver's turn to choose after hitting three home runs in the Kernels' 8-1 matinee win over Fort Wayne before 4,008 fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium. He had a pair of nearly identical two-run shots to left-center in the first and third innings, and obliterated a pitch from reliever Payton Baskette leading off the eighth for the hat trick.

Yes, he was swinging for the fences there.

'Definitely,” he said. 'I knew that a lefty was up, and I was seeing the ball well off lefties today. I was going to take my chances. If I was ahead in the count, which I was at 1-0, I was going to be a little selfish and let it rip on one.”

The 23-year-old from the University of New Mexico is believed to be the first Kernel to hit three homers in a game since Jordan Renz in 2006. The Midwest League single-game record is four, accomplished multiple times, the last by Garrett Jones of Quad Cities in 2002.

Kernels Manager Jake Mauer witnessed that performance as a teammate of Jones. He said the lefty swinger deposited at least two in the Mississippi River beyond the right-field fence at John O'Donnell Stadium (now Modern Woodmen Park).

'And the thing was he didn't play the next night,” Mauer said. 'Because we were facing (lefty) Dontrelle Willis.”

Will Garver play in Cedar Rapids' next game Wednesday night at Bowling Green?

'I'll see if I can squeeze him in the lineup,” he said with a laugh.

Garver leads the Kernels (47-53, 16-14) in batting average (.303), doubles (20), RBIs (61) and OPS (.849), and is tied with Haar now in home runs (12). Offensively he is more than ready for the next level, though Mauer said defense is what the parent Twins want to see him concentrate most upon.

Even that has improved. The manager gave Garver credit for coaxing a good performance out of starting pitcher Chieh-Wei Hu (2-0) on a day Hu didn't have his best stuff.

'I'd like to see him catch a little more,” Mauer said. 'He's going to hit, has a good bat, is strong. Now he's starting to take that next step, as far as running a pitching staff. For instance, those guys were a very aggressive team offensively, so he had Hu spin that breaking ball and changeup early in counts to get them off his fastball ... Hitting three home runs is great, but what I think he did behind the plate was even better.”

'I know they're keeping me down here because they want to see me catch more,” Garver said. 'They want me catching five days a week. I understand that, I know I need to improve on my defense. I think (a promotion to Fort Myers) could happen anytime, but if not, I'll play out the rest of the season and make a playoff push with this team. I think we've got a good chance of making the playoffs. If we do, I think we have a good chance of winning it.”

The Kernels don't play Tuesday, though they will make an approximately nine-hour bus ride to Bowling Green, Ky., for a three-game series that begins Wednesday. Then it's on to Dayton, Ohio, for three games.

Cedar Rapids goes into this road trip three games out of first place in the Western Division second-half standings, tied with Wisconsin for the second of two available playoff spots.

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