Same old playoff situation for Kernels

CEDAR RAPIDS – They rallied after dropping Game 1 at home in their previous series, but this is a different deal for the Cedar Rapids Kernels. A whole different deal.

A 5-2 loss Saturday night to Kane County in the first game of the Midwest League Western Division finals means the Kernels face another elimination situation, having to win Sunday night in suburban Chicago to remain alive in the best-of-three set.

A deciding Game 3 would be Monday night at Kane County, which seems plausible since it's been done before. Cedar Rapids won a pair of games to eliminate Burlington in the first round.

But hold on before you get overly optimistic. This is a Kane County team that had the MWL's best record in the regular season and is 54-17 at home.

'They're a really quality team, led all of minor league baseball in wins,” said Kernels catcher Michael Quesada. 'There's something to be said about that. They swing it well, they pitch, their guys throw everything for strikes. They are a good team.”

And the Kernels are relying on a guy who has never played at this level of professional baseball. John Curtiss was promoted Saturday from Rookie-level Elizabethton to replace injured Lewis Thorpe and is Sunday's starting pitcher.

Welcome to Class A, John. Hook ‘em Horns and go get ‘em.

'We'll throw him out there tomorrow and see what we get,” Manager Jake Mauer said. 'He's a college guy (Texas) and has thrown some big innings … I'm not worried about him.”

If he works out like the other new guy brought in from Elizabethton, the Kernels will be fine. Tanner English turned out to be quite the ringer in Game 1, playing a flawless center field and going 3-for-5 with a run and run batted in.

He reached on a leadoff single in the bottom of the first, went to second on an errant pickoff attempt by Kane County catcher Cael Brockmeyer, to third on a groundout and scored on a Chad Christensen groundout. Kane County got that run back in the third on a two-out RBI triple to the fence in right-center by Mark Zagunis.

A 2014 draft pick from the University of South Carolina, English was on campus in Columbia when parent Minnesota Twins farm director Brad Steil called him Friday afternoon and told him he'd be coming to Cedar Rapids if the Kernels beat Burlington on Friday night.

They did, and he was on an airplane Saturday morning.

'I followed the game last night, and I'm here now,” English said. 'I had no idea. We had lost in the playoffs at E-town (earlier last week) and we were all kind of bummed out about that. It's kind of like I get a new life. It's pretty cool.”

The game stayed 1-1 until late, as starting pitcher Ryan Eades (Kernels) and Daury Torrez (KC) gave their respective teams chances to win. Torrez went a flat five innings, Eades got two outs in the sixth.

Brandon Bixler relieved him and struck out Daniel Lockhart swinging to get out of a bases-loaded jam. He wasn't so lucky in the seventh.

Carlos Penalver singled leading off, Shawon Dunston Jr. walked with one away, and a Bixler wild pitch moved them up. With the infield playing in, Zagunis hit a hard grounder at Kernels second baseman Ryan Walker, but he couldn't handle it, the ball glancing off him and into center field for an error that scored two runs.

'The playoffs usually come down to one pitch,” Quesada said. 'It's never a group of things, it's always on one pitch at any point in the game. It's something where the team that capitalizes, wins.”

Kane County tried to give those unearned runs right back in the bottom of the seventh, as Walker reached on a one-out fielding error on shortstop Penalver, then the ever-present English hit a ball to right field that Zagunis misplayed into a triple. He went back and to his left on the well-hit ball, only to have it sink in front of him, diving, whiffing and having the ball bounce past him to the fence.

But the Kernels couldn't get English across to tie it. Zak Hermans struck out Jonatan Hinojosa swinging on a breaking pitch for the second out, walked Christensen but struck out Max Murphy looking.

Brockmeyer tripled into the right-field corner leading off the Kane County eighth and scored on a sacrifice fly. Zagunis homered to lead off the ninth.

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