A nearly flawless performance from the bullpen lifts Kernels

CEDAR RAPIDS — You’re not going to win many baseball games when your starting pitcher is ineffective and gets taken out in the second inning.

That’s not to say you won’t win any because the Cedar Rapids Kernels did Sunday afternoon.

It took an extraordinary performance from the bullpen for the Kernels to beat Peoria, 4-2, at Veterans Memorial Stadium. An extraordinary and almost flawless performance from the bullpen.

Relievers John Stankiewicz, Niklas Rimmel, Gianluca Dalatri and Miguel Rodriguez combined to retire 23 of the 24 Chiefs batters they faced. The only one not to be retired reached base because of a throwing error on shortstop Jose Salas, after he fielded a routine grounder.

Just that close to being perfect.

“Really good,” said Kernels Manager Brian Dinkelman. “What, 7 1/3 (innings)? 7 2/3? Yeah, they were really good ... Kept us in the game by putting out that fire there in the second inning. Gave our offense a chance.”

Starter Anderson Hidalgo simply couldn’t locate the strike zone, walking six: four in the first inning and two in the second. He left with the bases loaded and one out in the Peoria second, with Stankiewicz coming on and getting a foul pop to third and slow grounder to first to wiggle his team out of that jam with no runs scoring and it trailing only 2-1.

Stankiewicz then struck out the side in the third and retired six more in a row after that. The right-hander from Fordham University was almost exclusively a starter his first two years in the Minnesota Twins organization but is 3-0 with a save this season thus far as a reliever.

“At first, it was a little bit different,” Stankiewicz said. “But I’ve gotten used to it. It’s still baseball, you’re still pitching. You’ve just got to develop a new routine. Definitely different, but it’s still pitching, you’re trying to go out there and throw strikes and get guys out.”

The Kernels (22-17) went ahead in the fifth on a two-out, two-run double off the left-field fence by Tanner Schobel. He added a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

A Compensation Round-B pick, 68th overall, out of Virginia Tech last year, Schobel didn’t hit much in April but has been much better in May. That goes for his team as a whole, as Cedar Rapids has won three series in a row, taking four of six games here.

Wisconsin comes to town for six games beginning Tuesday night. The Kernels are tied with South Bend for second place in the Midwest League’s Western Division, one-half game behind leader Beloit.

“We’ve been playing better baseball lately,” Dinkelman said. “Winning a few more games. You know, you’re only as good as your next day’s starter. But, yeah, we’ve been playing well lately. We’ve got another series coming up Tuesday, and we’ll see what happens.”

Davenport Central grad Ian Bedell started for Peoria, and gave up two hits and a run in four innings.

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