Cedar Rapids Kernels drop 2 of 3 games against MWL’s best team in frustrating fashion

CEDAR RAPIDS — The difference between the best team in the Midwest League and the Cedar Rapids Kernels over the weekend was negligible. No doubt about that.

But the reason the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers won this short series was considerable.

They took advantage of their offensive opportunities. The Kernels did not.

“All the games were close,” Kernels Manager Brian Dinkelman said after Sunday’s 5-3 loss at Veterans Memorial Stadium. “We didn’t get any hits when we needed them with guys on base. That was the difference.”

Hard to discern which of the two losses the Kernels incurred in this three-game set against a club with an MWL-best 58-31 record was the most difficult to take: this one or Saturday night’s 4-3 loss. That latter game saw Misael Urbina’s potential three-run, game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth inning hit the very top of the fence in left field and bounce back on to the field for a two-run double instead.

Cedar Rapids won Friday night’s game, 2-1.

The plots in all three were C.R. having a plethora of baserunners but not moving them. They went 0-for-11 with guys in scoring position Friday night, 1-for-9 Saturday and 0-for-6 Sunday.

That’s 1-for-26 total, and that’s not good. In some cases, those baserunners ended up being erased, as the Kernels (51-37) hit into four double plays Friday night and one each Saturday and Sunday.

“I felt like our pitchers threw the ball well this series,” Dinkelman said. “We got guys on base every game this series, but we didn’t really get a hit with a guy in scoring position the whole time.”

Dinkelman was asked if he felt hitter approaches were flawed when there were guys on base.

“No, not necessarily,” he said. “Those guys, they’ve had a good pitching staff all season. They’ve been tough on the whole league. Our guys have been pretty good about hitting with runners in scoring position. It was a combination of their pitching and us not being able to find the grass when we needed to.”

A spate of defensive miscues allowed Wisconsin to score three go-ahead runs in the sixth inning. There was one error, though two others easily could have been called, a passed ball and a lackadaisical throw back to the infield after that error that allowed an extra run to score.

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Rubel Cespedes had a pair of solo home runs and accounted for the third Kernels run via a bases-loaded hit by pitch. Jordan Carr gave Cedar Rapids a chance with five good innings in a start that originally was supposed to go to C.J. Culpepper.

Culpepper has been on the injured list and was to be activated from it, but that will have to wait another week, Dinkelman said. The Kernels also had two pitchers promoted to Double-A Wichita after Sunday’s game: Christian MacLeod (who was 3-1 with a 2.77 earned run average in 12 starts) and Kyle Bischoff (who was 5-2 with four saves as a late-inning reliever).

Cedar Rapids is 14-10 in the MWL’s second half, 2 1/2 games behind front-running Wisconsin, which won the first half. Beloit is a game behind the Kernels, Peoria two games and Quad Cities three.

That’s significant because the second-place team in the division gets a playoff spot if Wisconsin wins the second half as well. C.R. heads to the road for a week, at Quad Cities.

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