Bullpen salty once again but no saving this game

CEDAR RAPIDS - Cedar Rapids Manager Bill Mosiello was extolling the virtues of the Kernels' bullpen before last night's Midwest League baseball game against the Peoria Chiefs.

“Our bullpen is really being solidified,” Mosiello said. “If we can get five strong innings out of our starter and be able to go to our bullpen, we feel like we have a pretty good chance.”

The Kernels got another great performance from their bullpen against the Chiefs. But it came after another poor outing by starter Ryan Chaffee, who for the third straight start failed to make it past the fourth inning.

Peoria banged out eight hits and scored 10 runs in three-plus innings against Chaffee en route to an 11-1 pasting of the Kernels. It was the Kernels' most lopsided loss since a 15-2 drubbing April 18 at Kane County and came on the heels of an 8-3 whipping of Peoria on Friday night.

The loss was only the Kernels' second in their last seven games, but dropped them 4.5 games behind Peoria in the Western Division second-half race with eight games remaining. The teams meet again today and Monday night.

Peoria's Kyler Burke belted a grand slam and drove in six runs to power the Chiefs. His two-run triple highlighted the Chiefs' three-run first inning and his grand slam capped their six-run fourth frame.

Burke's blast chased Chaffee (8-7) from the game.

“I don't really know what's going on,” said Chaffee, who has given up 19 runs, 18 earned, in 10 innings over his last three starts, ballooning his ERA from 3.14 to 4.32. “I've never gone through this before. I've never given up 10 runs in a game before. I'm working. All you can do is try to work through it and, hopefully, stuff will work out.”

The Kernels' relief corps was solid, allowing two hits and one run over six innings. Christian Scholl retired all nine batters he faced, fanning six.

The Kernels, meanwhile, had their struggles against Peoria starter Austin Bibens-Dirkx (7-1), managing just five hits and one run over 6-2/3 innings. After three seasons in the Mariners organization, Bibens-Dirkx was released just before the end of spring training. He hooked on with an Independent League club and was signed by Peoria's parent club, the Chicago Cubs, on July 3 and assigned to the Chiefs.

“I was in this league three years ago,” said Bibens-Dirkx, who has seven wins and a save in his last eight appearances. “You have to keep the ball down and mix your pitches. And it always helps when you get great defense.”

Darwin Perez, subbing at second for the injured Alexi Amarista, had three of the Kernels' eight hits. Amarista was held out after tweaking his left leg after collecting three hits in Friday night's game. Mosiello said Amarista is well enough to play and was just being rested.

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By Mike Koolbeck