Kernels play, lose another long one

CEDAR RAPIDS - Jeremy Cruz was overhearing a conversation about his Cedar Rapids Kernels leading the Midwest League this season in longest average game time.

“I'm not helping with that,” he said.

Cruz is a fastidious hitter, for sure. He steps out of the box after every pitch, adjusts his helmet and batting gloves and goes through an elongated routine.

But you can't blame this one solely on him. There are a lot of theories about why Kernels games last an average of two hours and 50 minutes.

That includes a 7-4 loss to Kane County last night at Memorial Stadium that was another three-hour special.

“I did not know that, but it does feel like it,” Kernels Manager Brent Del Chiaro said. “Early on in the year, you can look at all the errors we made. That prolongs innings. Walks prolong innings. (Allowing) big innings when our pitching was scuffling a little bit. When you give up big innings, you're out there (defensively) for a while and games slow down.”

Cedar Rapids is 15th out of 16 teams in the MWL in hitting, so playing long games doesn't compute in that sense. But Kernels pitchers rank 14th in strikeouts, so a lot of at-bats by opposing hitters could be elongated.

General Manager Doug Nelson said the club has gone through an inordinate amount of game balls this season, an indication of a lot of fouls.

“Sometimes, if you look at it, the hitters just aren't that good. Bottom line. And that's on both teams,” Del Chiaro said. “Pitches they should be hitting, get fouled off. Whereas at higher levels, they don't miss pitches.”

The ironic thing is Del Chiaro constantly preaches the importance of up-tempo, clean games.

“Delly talks about that a lot,” Kernels catcher Marcus Nidiffer said. “He likes to have short games because that makes everything a little more crisp.”

The Kernels were swept in this three-game series, dropping to a season-low 52-68 overall (20-30 second half). Their pitchers walked six, hit two and threw six wild pitches.