Long, bad night at the ballpark for Kernels

CEDAR RAPIDS - Sometimes you get one like this during a five-month, 140-game season.

There wasn't much of anything redeemable about the Cedar Rapids Kernels' 13-7 loss Friday night to Beloit at Veterans Memorial Stadium. That's unless you enjoy four-hour marathons with absolutely no flow to them.

This less than beauty featured starting third baseman Rafael Valera pitching a scoreless ninth inning for the Kernels. It was his throwing error with two outs in the top of the first inning that opened the proverbial floodgates, so perhaps pitching was his punishment.

The next six Beloit hitters reached base in a five-run inning that knocked starting pitcher Randy Rosario out of the game.

'That was embarrassing, absolutely brutal,” said Kernels Manager Jake Mauer. 'I tell you what, we had a hard time recovering from that error. All of that happened with two outs. All of it. Too many walks again. We've walked way too many guys the last two weeks. We found a way to score some runs (tonight), but if we're walking guys, it's going to be awfully tough. Awfully tough. That's a tall task to ask your bullpen to get 8 1/3 innings. Randy really didn't give us much tonight. Very disappointing.”

Cedar Rapids (57-42, 16-13) still made it interesting with five tying runs in the fourth. But Beloit resumed control on a two-out Max Kuhn home run in the fifth, scored again in the sixth and blew the doors open by batting around a second time in the game in a five-run seventh.

Kernels pitchers, Valera included, gave up 15 hits and walked seven, highly uncharacteristic for a staff that ranked third in the 16-team Midwest League in earned run average. Everything seemed to go Beloit's way, with evidence being Tim Proudfoot's high pop that landed on the right-field line and bounced into the stands for a two-run double.

A bit later, Yairo Munoz had an infield single to shortstop that scored two runs. Just one of those nights for Cedar Rapids, which hosts the Snappers again Saturday night at 6:35.

No pressure on starter Sam Gibbons or anything to pitch deep and save the bullpen. Give mega kudos to Randy LeBlanc, who soaked up 4 1/3 innings Friday, unfortunately getting the loss after allowing Kuhn's homer.

'He competed,” Mauer said. 'He gave us a chance to crawl back into the game with three zeroes. He just hung a breaking ball (in his fourth inning).”

If you are looking for positives, the Kernels offense wasn't too bad. All 10 guys who batted reached either via hit or walk.

That included Brian Navarreto's solo home run off the foul pole in left. He drove in three.

Navarreto and Austin Diemer had three hits each. Tanner English had a two-run triple.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com