Kernels walk but don’t run in 5-2 loss to Burlington

CEDAR RAPIDS — You play baseball virtually every day for over five months, you're going to have some good games, you're going to have some bad games. You're going to have some games that just make others scratch their heads.

One of the latter came Wednesday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels had a guy thrown out at second base on a one-hopped line drive off the right-field wall. They had a guy thrown out at the plate and third base on the same play.

They walked 10 times, had six hits and a hit by pitch, yet scored only two runs. Two flipping runs.

A 5-2 loss to Burlington before 3,003 fans was enough to make Manager Tommy Watkins lock the clubhouse door postgame and have a little chat with his team. A spirited little chat.

'It doesn't look like they're having fun. You agree?' Watkins said. 'Not a lot of energy right now. That is exactly what I told them.'

Cedar Rapids is 2-5 in the Midwest League's second half after losing a third consecutive game to the Bees. It's been a tumultuous week, with four position players promoted to high-Class A and four new guys coming in to replace them.

But most of these guys just had a three-day MWL All-Star break, which makes the lack of energy rather alarming.

'I totally agree,' Watkins said. 'That's what we said. Somebody said it's the dog days now. It's only June. What are they going to do when they get to August? I just challenged them to come with some energy tomorrow. If they don't, we'll start doing some things differently.'

Sounds like a challenge for the finale of this four-game series Thursday night at 6:35.

Burlington scored all five of its runs in the third inning against losing starting pitcher Eduardo Del Rosario (7-4). He walked three guys, gave up a two-run double to Jahmai Jones and three-run home run (measured at 455 feet) to Julian Leon.

Meanwhile, the Kernels had runners all over the place but refused to bring them in. They loaded the bases in the fifth but brought just one run across.

They had a walk, single and triple in the eighth but didn't score. Watkins blamed it all on approach, or a lack thereof, at the plate.

'The last few games, we've walked (eight) times, six times. now 10 times,' he said. 'Ten today and a hit by pitch. Unbelievable. So what does that tell you? We just give at-bats away. We try to end them as quickly as possible instead of working the process. I told them the pitcher is in trouble, not us. We just go up and swing at anything.'

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