Gordon stays hot, but Kernels fall to Dayton

CEDAR RAPIDS – Nick Gordon rounded third and the crowd at Veteran's Memorial Stadium thought there was a chance at witnessing a rarity in baseball.

But manager Jake Mauer held up the Cedar Rapids Kernels rookie, and he settled for a two-RBI triple.

'I think I would have been thrown out pretty bad,” Gordon said. 'I think it was good Jake held me up there.”

Gordon was 2-for-4 and nearly had another hit was it not for a diving stop in Cedar Rapids' 8-3 loss to Dayton on Wednesday night.

He did get a stroke of luck on the triple, though. Gordon lined one into center field, where Dayton's Jonathan Reynoso tried to make a diving catch, only for it to skip under his glove and all the way to the wall.

With no outs in the fourth inning and facing a 6-0 – 6-2 after Gordon's hit – deficit, Mauer wasn't about to take a risk simply for the novelty.

'You're down five and don't want to make the first out at home,” Mauer said. 'He hit the ball hard and the guy kind of dove and gave him a charity triple, which was nice of him. Hopefully, we bunch those three hits together and look to get some more, and it just didn't work out.”

Gordon, who scored on Zack Larson's groundout, is really coming along for Cedar Rapids in the second half of the season, hitting .319 in July and August after a .250 average the first three months.

The former first-round pick said his approach and plan haven't changed much at the plate, but Mauer has noticed better strike-zone awareness.

'I'd say he's more aggressive as far as in the zone, swinging the bat,” Mauer said. 'He's not chasing as much.”

'Everybody goes through their ruts so you've just got to fight throught it,” Gordon said. 'Not really much I've changed. Just keep hitting.”

That's probably a wise piece of advice to give to Felix Jorge, Wednesday's starting pitcher, who had a second straight outing that didn't meet his standards.

The thing is, he still pitched into the sixth inning for the 16th straight game, only his last two starts have had a couple rough patches.

Wednesday, it was one killer inning. Avain Rachal's solo homer started a streak of three straight one-out hits in the second. No. 9 hitter Chad Tromp delivered a two-out RBI single, then Cory Thompson provided the big blow, hitting a towering three-run shot inside the left-field foul pole.

'His command hasn't been as good in the last two. Breaking balls, specifically, changeup,” Mauer said. 'Everything has been up. He's having a hard time getting the ball down.”

Yet the other five innings were what the Kernels are used to out of him this season. Five of the seven hits and all five earned runs Jorge gave up came in that inning.

'Look at the bright side of that, that's difficult to do,” Mauer said. 'Give up five in the second and you're still able to go out and at least give us a chance, keep us in it. He'll bounce back.”

Thompson hit another home run in the ninth, this one off Ethan Mildren. Rachal was 4-for-4. Jake Paulson got the win for Dayton. The teams play again Thursday at 6:35 p.m.

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