Jose Jimenez, meet Jose Jimenez

CEDAR RAPIDS - In the middle of another dismal game for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, this provided a moment of levity.

The Clinton LumberKings brought left-hander Jose Jimenez out of their bullpen to pitch the seventh inning of their 12-1 romp last night at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The first batter he faced was Jose Jimenez.

Honest. There are four guys with that name playing minor league baseball this season, and here was two of them - both in uniform number 34.

The Clinton Jose Jimenez is a 23-year-old from Venezuela. The Cedar Rapids Jose Jimenez is a 23-year-old catcher from Hialeah, Fla. and the University of Tampa.

“I was made aware of it yesterday,” Cedar Rapids Jose Jimenez said. “Definitely weird. I would understand it if it was a family member or something. But a total stranger, wearing the same number and everything. Just weird.”

For the record, Cedar Rapids Jose Jimenez sliced a flyball the other way to left that was caught. He'll likely get a chance at revenge on his namesake before this season is finished.

“It'd be nice to get a couple of hits off of him,” he said.

OK, now to the game.Kalian Sams hit a grand slam in the top of the first inning against Tyler Kehrer (0-2) en route to handing the Kernels a sixth loss in seven games.

Kehrer didn't get out of the fifth, continuing a disturbing trend for Kernels starting pitchers. In their last eight games, they have given up 39 earned runs in 43 innings. Cedar Rapids has allowed 61 runs total in that span.

“Basically, we're not locating our fastball very well,” said Kernels pitching coach Brandon Emanuel. “In this organization, we really pitch off our fastball. We're leaving a lot of balls out over the middle of the plate. We're getting behind in counts, and we're walking a lot of people.”

Jimenez and

Mike Trout had three hits apiece, with Trout picking up a double and triple and Jimenez two doubles. The teams conclude their three-game series tonight at 6:35.