A wacky walk-off win for the Kernels

CEDAR RAPIDS - This is one of the reasons it's called the grand old game.

You can go to the ballpark a million times and still know you haven't seen it all and never will. Case in point was Sunday afternoon's 5-4 walk-off win over Peoria for the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Logan Wade scored from third base with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning when Peoria reliever Jacob Booden's first pitch of an attempted intentional walk to Mitch Garver was low and eluded catcher Steve Bean.

'I just saw it go by and went,” Wade said. 'I didn't really see how far away it got, but I saw it and heard everybody scream, so I ran.”

'Lost the first game of a double-header in Double-A on that same exact thing,” said Kernels Manager Jake Mauer. 'But instead of the pitch going down, it went up and over the catcher's head. I don't know if that was that bad of a throw, really. It looked like it kind of surprised the catcher.”

It surprised the 4,050 folks at Veterans Memorial Stadium, that's for sure. So did the way the rally began.

With two outs and no one on, Wade swung at a Booden pitch and knocked Bean's mitt off for catcher's interference. But the ball, which is still live, was put into play, dribbling through the right side for a hit.

Knowing he could take either the result of the play or the interference, Wade took advantage of a deep right fielder and hustled into second base for a double. Booden then wild pitched him to third and walked Chad Christensen.

In Wade's initial at-bat in the first inning, he also hit Bean's glove, yet singled up the middle. Weird, wild, wacky, right?

'I could tell from the first at-bat that ‘Shoot, he's close,'” Wade said of Bean. 'If I got thrown out there at second, I knew I'd still get a base hit anyway. I saw the right fielder deep, and he kind of gave up on it when he saw the catcher's interference. I just took the advantage.”

'Logan had enough sense to keep running,” Mauer said. 'That shows you some pretty good instincts right there. He knew they were playing no-doubles (defense), and in the worst-case scenario, he would just go back to first base.”

It was Wade's three-run home run to left in the fifth that gave the Kernels a 4-3 lead. Peoria tied it in the sixth on Richy Pedroza's RBI triple, but that was the last baserunner the Chiefs got.

Hudson Boyd and Brian Gilbert combined for three perfect relief innings. An impenetrable bullpen has been one of the biggest reasons this club is suddenly 65-60 overall and 34-21 in the Midwest League's second half.

The Kernels actually lost ground to Kane County in the race for first place in the division, as the Cougars won a Sunday double-header to go a full game up. But KC already has qualified for the postseason, so Cedar Rapids has to pay attention to Wisconsin and Peoria, which are the teams directly beneath it.

The three-game series sweep moved the Kernels seven big games ahead of Peoria and five up on Wisconsin. There are 15 regular-season games remaining, including Monday night at home against Quad Cities.

Hey, come on out. The way things are going, you're liable to see something unique.

'The ball's bouncing our way,” Mauer said. 'But from where we were in April and May, when it seemed like anything and everything was going wrong, things are maybe starting to even out now.”

The Kernels are expected to place pitcher Josue Montanez on the disabled list sometime Monday and receive outfielder Zack Larson from the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League Twins. The move gives them a more manageable 13 pitchers and 12 position players.

Montanez is 1-4 with a 7.22 earned run average. Hamstring issues put Larson on the disabled list in early May. He was hitting .292 in 32 games.

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