Cedar Rapids Kernels survive 2-week road trip, hone in on another playoff berth

CEDAR RAPIDS — Here was the itinerary.

First was a 446-mile bus ride on their day off to Lansing, Mich. Six games were played there.

Then it was 262 miles from Lansing to Dayton, Ohio. A day off in Dayton, then six more games.

The finale of this two-week, 12-game road odyssey for the Cedar Rapids Kernels was Sunday and scheduled for noon (CT). Because of rain, the start of that game was pushed back almost three hours.

The decision, which was made by the Dayton Dragons, was to do everything to get the game in instead of cancel it since the teams don’t play again. At first, it was supposed to be just a seven-inning affair then was moved to a regulation nine.

Naturally, the eighth inning rolled around, as did more rain, including a tornado warning. The postgame food spread was brought into the Kernels clubhouse with a note that said “Do not eat until the game is over.”

Per Midwest League rules, a game officially cannot be postponed until at least a half-hour after it’s stopped, so this food was taunting a bunch of guys who had been at the ballpark a long time already, on the road for two weeks, who knew they weren’t going to be playing again this day and who had an eight-hour bus ride awaiting back home. The Kernels pulled back into town about 3 a.m. Monday or so.

“We won the game,” shrugged Kernels Manager Brian Dinkelman.

Yeah, they did, culminating a long road trip that saw them go 7-5 and solidify their hold on first place in the Midwest League’s Western Division. Cedar Rapids went into Tuesday night’s game against the South Bend Cubs at Veterans Memorial Stadium up 3 1/2 games on their opponent and four ahead of Peoria and Quad Cities.

The final nine games of this first half are all at home, including six against South Bend. Kala’i Rosario’s none-out RBI single up the middle scored Ben Ross in the bottom of the ninth for a 3-2 win.

The Kernels are 4 1/2 up now on South Bend, four ahead of new second-place team Peoria.

Clinching a playoff berth is solely in the Kernels’ hands. It’d be their 10th in a row as an affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.

“I’d say it’s a cool thing for us, obviously. We’re all kind of aware,” said Kernels infielder Tanner Schobel. “But I don’t think it’s the main focus right now. I think the main focus is just getting better every day, because you know anything can happen in this game. So I’d say it’s just riding the wave of being comfortable right now. That’s what we’re trying to stay on right now, just staying on a good wave.”

Cedar Rapids is 32-25 this half, which is solid but not great. It has played fairly steady baseball, though, while most of the rest of the division hasn’t.

“It got a little groundhog-ish, but it was fine. It was a good road trip,” Dinkelman said. “We won a series in Lansing. Played some good games. The offense swung the bats pretty well, I felt like. It gets long by the end of a trip like that, but we were fine.”

Winning and losing is never the end all, be all in the minor leagues. It’s individual player development that’s the priority.

But anyone you talk to will tell you that being in a successful environment is a part of development, however small or large. So making the playoffs is pretty cool.

“Yeah, we talked about it a little bit last week,” Dinkelman said. “Just continue to keep playing like we’ve been playing. Just take care of yourself. It’s a big week for the boys, and hopefully we win a few games here and see where we’re at.”

“I think we’re in a good spot right now, but there’s always room to improve,” Schobel said.

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