Cedar Rapids Kernels trying to piece together a pitching puzzle

CEDAR RAPIDS - The good news for the Cedar Rapids Kernels is that the pitching staff looks pretty set up for the first week of this two-week road trip east. Everyone should be relatively fresh.

You wondered about that when starter Cole Peschl had to leave Thursday night’s game after one inning because of an injury to a pectoral muscle. He was placed on the injured list the following day.

Kernels relievers had to soak up an unexpected eight innings Thursday, which could have created a definite short-handed pitching situation. Thankfully, Ty Langenberg went six innings Friday night, Alejandro Hidalgo and Chase Chaney combined to go all nine innings Saturday night and starter Jose Olivares was able to throw five Sunday in a 9-4 loss to Fort Wayne at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Cedar Rapids begins a six-game series Tuesday night at Lansing, then plays six games at West Michigan.

“As of right now, we’re on schedule,” said Kernels co-pitching coach A.J. Angulo. “We’ll see what happens.”

The Kernels employ a six-man starting rotation, with those starters throwing once a week. Things have been different since the minor leagues took a four-day break a week and a half ago.

Chaney started Tuesday night’s game against Fort Wayne, though went just three innings and threw 33 pitches. Hall started Wednesday afternoon and went 2 2/3 innings on 55 pitches.

As mentioned, Chaney came back Saturday on short rest and went 4 1/3 innings. Hall threw in relief Sunday.

With Peschl out, it’ll be interesting to see how things work for the road trip. There are 15 active pitchers on staff, and it’s possible the parent Minnesota Twins could bring someone up from low-Class A Fort Myers.

The Major League Baseball trade deadline is this week, too, and theoretically C.R. could gain a pitcher there.

“It’s a tricky question,” Angulo said. We are just trying to finish games with what we have right now. We don’t know what the next moves are going to be, if we are going to have guys replacing our guys who got hurt.

“But, yeah, we have guys, like Chase Chaney and Tanner Hall, that are able to go every four days, four innings plus. Then we have guys who can go five innings who are in the rotation right now: Olivares and Hidalgo and Langenberg. We’ll see what the next moves are. We’re just trying to get through the games with what we have.”

Keep in mind, too, season workloads for pitchers are closely monitored by organizations. For instance, Hidalgo missed all of last season with a shoulder injury, so the Kernels are being extra cautious with him.

“Yes, we are trying to win ballgames,” Angulo said. “But at the end of the day, our job is to develop these guys. We are doing our best to try and keep them on a schedule, knowing when it’s good to maybe give them an extra day (of rest).

“We’re in communication with the trainers, everything. We have some testing that we do in the training room that tells us how they are moving, if they are recovering well, all that kind of stuff. That has been really helpful.”

The teams split this six-game series. Cedar Rapids (56-39 overall, 16-13 second half) scored three runs in the sixth inning - including a two-run, go-ahead double from Justin Connell - to take a 4-3 lead, but Fort Wayne came right back with a four spot in the top of the seventh.

Jaime Ferrer had three hits for the Kernels.

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