Dad helps Kernels’ White finish season with a flourish

CEDAR RAPIDS - Never doubt dad.

T.J. White learned that growing up. Even now that he's an adult and a professional baseball player, the Cedar Rapids Kernels third baseman is all too aware that sometimes father still knows best.

It was Ken White who watched his son play a couple of games in July at high-Class A Fort Myers and noticed something was askew with his swing.

'He was like ‘You're late. You are so late,'” T.J. said, after the Kernels' 3-1 win Sunday afternoon over Clinton at Veterans Memorial Stadium. 'It's kind of like that old saying (of) ‘I might not know as much as them, but I've seen you play more than anyone else.' (Teammate) Brett Doe always tells me that, too, because his dad tells him that.”

White said he went back to doing some things he did in college at Nevada-Las Vegas to try and quicken up his swing. Whatever adjustments he has made have worked wonderfully.

He is hitting a robust .364 (40-for-110) since being reassigned to the Kernels August 3. In 31 games since his return, he has at least one hit in 26 of them.

White began the season here and got about three weeks in with Fort Myers before coming back. His opposite-field single to right field with two outs in the sixth inning scored Nick Gordon with what turned out to be the winning run.

The Kernels are 77-62 overall, with one regular-season game to go, Monday at 12:05.

'I've just been trying to slow myself down a little bit and see the ball,” White said. 'Try to get myself started more at the plate. Get ready and be more on time.”

He has raised his season batting average from .230 to .268 with this late binge. That's pretty incredible when you really think about it.

'Very nice. That's a great number,” White said. 'Especially considering at the half-way point, it was pretty down. It's a lot more fun to finish strong and hopefully carry it into the playoffs.”

'He's a different man coming back,” said Kernels Manager Jake Mauer. 'They worked on a lot of stuff in Fort Myers, and he made a lot of strides there. And I think, too, that coming back, he took a lot of pressure off of himself. He doesn't live and die with every swing, every at-bat. Look at the ball he hit that turned out to be the game winner. He took two pretty bad swings, then he made an adjustment, didn't try to pull it and went the other way. As a hitter, that's what some of our other guys need to learn.”

Starting pitcher Randy LeBlanc (9-5) pitched six effective innings to pick up the win, with Luke Bard and Nick Anderson finishing up. Anderson got his fourth save.

Nick Gordon tripled in the tying run in C.R.'s three-run sixth. Clinton dropped to a Midwest League-worst 45-93, with a loss Monday tying the long-time franchise's record for most losses in a season.

The Kernels play Quad Cities in a best-of-3 MWL playoff series that begins Wednesday night at home. Games 2 and 3, if needed, are at Davenport on Thursday and Friday.

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