Cedar Rapids Kernels hope good series against Wisconsin a harbinger for rest of season

CEDAR RAPIDS — And now for the real fun.

Nothing like a two-week, mega-long road trip to Ohio in the dying days of the Midwest League’s regular season. At least the Cedar Rapids Kernels should head into it feeling pretty good about themselves after Sunday afternoon’s 7-3 win over Wisconsin at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Cedar Rapids won five of six games in the series and played solid baseball in the process. Seth Gray, Wander Javier and first-rounder Brooks Lee each hit two-run home runs here.

“The roster is definitely different now than it was early in the season,” said Kernels Manager Brian Dinkelman. “New guys: new pitchers, new hitters. Lately we’ve been better. We went through a stretch where we were down some starters and put extra pressure on our bullpen to give more innings.

“Kind of stabilized the starting rotation a little bit, which gets everybody back into their groove and that. The pitchers had a good series this week, we swung the bats well today with three homers and stuff. So, yeah, the last few days have been pretty good.”

The Kernels (68-46 overall, 25-23 in the second half) had a couple of starting pitchers go on the injured list. Another got promoted, another traded to another organization.

They’ve been bullpenning a lot of games of late, though not Sunday. Jaylen Nowlin was just promoted from low-Class A Fort Myers and his first start with the Kernels was a beauty: six innings, three hits, two runs and a walk allowed, with 11 strikeouts.

The left-hander’s fastball was consistently 92-93 miles per hour, his changeup looked plus and he showed a slider, too. He could be a nice weapon come playoff time early next month.

“I didn’t know what to expect, really, with his first outing,” Dinkelman said. “But, yeah, he was really good.”

It appears Cedar Rapids will draw South Bend in a best-of-3 Western Division playoff series that would begin in Indiana before heading west for Game 2 on Sept. 15 and a possible deciding Game 3 the following night. The Cubs are five games up in first place in the second half with 18 to play.

Ironically, the Kernels and South Bend finish the regular season in Cedar Rapids with six games. The Kernels travel Monday to Lake County, with that six-game series beginning Tuesday night.

Then it’s on to Dayton for six.

“It’ll be a tough two weeks here on the road,” Dinkelman said. “We’ll get through these two weeks, then get home for the final homestand and see where we’re at from there heading into the playoffs.”

Of the 28 players on the active roster for the Kernels, only 11 began the season here. Just nine have been here the entire season.

Lots of turnover, a bit more than usual, but winning has been the common denominator.

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