A Steele-y performance lifts Kernels

CEDAR RAPIDS – When a manager goes out to the mound during a game, it's usually to yank his pitcher.

Cedar Rapids Kernels skipper Jake Mauer was ready to do that with two outs and a runner on second base in the seventh inning Friday night, but he wondered if starter Keaton Steele would make that decision for him. It was kind of like a good poker player looking for a 'tell” from his opponent.

Do you have a hand or are you bluffing, Keaton?

'I just went out there to see,” Mauer said, after Steele and the Kernels brushed past Clinton, 6-1, before 2,749 fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium. 'You can kind of tell sometimes. You start walking to the mound, and if they are already handing you the ball, you know they want out of there.”

Steele didn't want out of there. He had a three-run lead and wanted to keep the ball, not hand it to Mauer.

'It was ‘How do you feel? What do you think? Do you want it?' Obviously, I want it,” Steele said. 'He just said ‘All right, go do it.' It was a pretty simple conversation. He went out there to give me a breather a little bit. Two outs, so just attack and go get them.”

Steele got a strikeout to end the inning, reliever Randy LeBlanc was saved until the eighth, and everything turned out hunky-dory.

'He didn't flinch,” Mauer said. 'I asked him how he was feeling, and he said he felt pretty good. I said ‘Well, I think Randy is ready.' In a nice way, he said he wanted to pitch, and I said ‘I think that's a good idea.'”

That Steele (2-0) was able to negotiate seven innings was pretty good considering his ominous beginning. The first three Clinton batters had hits, the LumberKings had a run in and guys on second and third.

But the right-hander from the University of Missouri notched back-to-back Ks and a popout to limit damage, then settled in. This was his second start since joining the Kernels from extended spring training a couple of weeks ago, his third if you count the resumption of a suspended game in Peoria he threw.

'Stay down in the zone, make good pitches,” Steele said. 'Eventually they were going to hit it right at somebody. If someone does that to you all night, you've got to tip your cap. Luckily, it didn't happen all night. It was just the first inning there. Just a few more hits scattered out there, the defense played well with some double plays. (J.J.) Fernandez made a huge catch out there in right (in the seventh), and we come out with the win.”

Steele was mostly a reliever in college and all of last season in the minor leagues. The Twins wanted him to become a starter, and he seems to be taking to it well.

'I had some transition issues shoulder wise, going through my first spring training and maybe throwing too much, too hard right away,” he said. 'I stayed down there in extended, and, honestly, it was one of the best things that happened to me. I was able to slow down a little bit and really work on zoning my balls. Where they needed to be placed. Not so much how hard they were, but where they needed to go.”

The Kernels (31-18) finally broke through offensively in the sixth, scoring four times against beleaguered Clinton reliever Jarrett Brown (1-3). Pat Kelly had an RBI triple to the left-center gap to tie things at 1-1, Zack Larson followed with a run-scoring double, and Brown ended up hitting a batter and throwing four wild pitches from there.

Brett Doe went 3-for-4 in the game for Cedar Rapids, which hosts Clinton again Saturday night at 6:35, and added a pair of RBIs. LeBlanc threw shutout relief for two innings for his first save of the season.

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