Numbers for Kernels' Hicks are eye-popping

CEDAR RAPIDS - D.J. Hicks grounded out with runners on second and third to end the fourth inning Thursday night. What a chump.

Anyone who has watched the Cedar Rapids Kernels first baseman this season knows that was written with the ultimate facetiousness. Hicks has produced production numbers that are simply incredible.

He leads minor-league baseball with 81 RBIs in 85 games, including a 13-9, season-long three-hour and 37-minute loss to Dayton before 3,332 fans Thursday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium. That's just scratching the surface of what he has actually accomplished.

"Credit goes to my teammates for getting (into scoring position), first of all," Hicks said. "I guess maybe I'm just attacking early. I'm getting better pitches with runners in scoring position. Maybe pitchers are trying to be a little too fine, things like that, and they're leaving the ball down the middle. But other than that, I'm just trying to hit the ball."

Hicks, 23, hit a walk-off home run to win the Appalachian League championship for Elizabethton last season and hasn't stopped driving in runs. He's been the beneficiary of hitting in the middle of a potent Kernels lineup that has scored the most runs by a wide margin in the Midwest League.

That's not to say he's getting all these RBIs by chance. Not at all.

The guy is hitting an amazing .438 with runners in scoring position, and that's in 121 at-bats. Let that soak in for a moment.

"Uh, that's pretty good. I'll take that," Hicks said, when that number was sprung on him Thursday. "Overall, I'm still trying to cut down on the strikeouts, learn to shorten my swing. That's something I'm always going to have to be working on. But the season as a whole, that's what I expect out of myself. I think I'm a career .300 hitter in the minors so far, and I think I can definitely (keep doing) that. RBIs can come and go, you can't always control that."

Hicks came into Thursday night's game hitting .301 with 28 doubles and 13 home runs. He's old for the MWL at 23 and has his deficiencies defensively.

But you can't ignore what he's done offensively. If the parent Minnesota Twins didn't know him much before this season, they do now.

"I'm sure trying to make a name for myself. Sure trying," he said. "You can't really worry about that, but I'm definitely trying to."

The Kernels (53-35, 13-7) lost for the second consecutive time in this three-game series and for the seventh time in nine games overall. They gave up 11 runs in a blowout loss Wednesday night and allowed every Dayton starter to score at least once Thursday night.

Jesse Winker had a first-inning grand slam Wednesday and a three-run first-inning shot Thursday against Kernels starting pitcher Josue Montanez (3-2).

Montanez, Hudson Boyd and Madison Boer combined to give up 11 hits, 10 walks and three hit batters. J.D. Williams and Adam Brett Walker had two-run homers for Cedar Rapids, which also got a three-hit, two-RBI night from Jonathan Murphy.

The teams play again Friday night at 6:35.

Here is the game boxscore: