Rain puts a damper on potential Cedar Rapids Kernels championship celebration

CEDAR RAPIDS — Leave it to that great philosopher Brian Dinkelman to perfectly sum up Tuesday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose,” the Cedar Rapids Kernels manager said. “Sometimes it rains.”

There you go. That’s it, that’s exactly what happened.

The Kernels and Great Lakes Loons had Game 2 of the Midwest League Championship Series suspended by rain as the bottom of the fifth was about to commence. Great Lakes had a 1-0 lead thanks to an Alex Freeland solo home run with two outs in the top of the fourth.

Both starting pitchers were dealing in this game: lefty Justin Wrobleski for the Loons and righty Andrew Morris for the Kernels. Wrobleski struck out six in four innings and got out of a two-on, one-out jam in the second by getting Jeferson Morales to hit into an inning-ending double play.

Morales’ ball was struck hard, one-hopping off the side of the mound but right to Great Lakes’ Taylor Young, who was stationed toward the middle. Morris struck out seven in five innings, his only real mistake a fastball over the plate that Freeland launched over the fence in right-center field.

Neither pitcher will be around for the conclusion of this one, though, obviously.

The suspended game will restart at the point it was stopped, at 5:30 at Memorial Stadium. If the Kernels can mount a comeback and win, they’d have their first Midwest League title since 1994.

If Great Lakes prevails, a winner-take-all Game 3 would follow. However, it would be seven innings instead of nine.

“Honestly, just take what we got from these five innings and mostly just go from there,” said Kernels third baseman Jose Salas. “Just come back tomorrow with a fresh head, a fresh mind, analyze what we did in these five innings (tonight). See what went good for us and what went bad and what we have to do. Just come back and do it all over again, but with a better plan, better execution, and then we’ll become victorious.”

“We know this is part of the game,” Dinkelman said. “You get to this point in the season and try to win a championship, guys are excited and emotional. Just come back tomorrow and get ready to play. It’s a 1-0 ballgame, come back and score some runs, hopefully, and see if we can finish off the first game.”

Dinkelman wouldn’t divulge his pitching plans for Wednesday. It seems likely the Kernels would go with the bullpen to conclude Game 2, then Cory Lewis to start Game 3, if needed.

Cedar Rapids grabbed a very large hammer in this series when it rallied for five runs in the ninth inning to beat Great Lakes, 10-6, Sunday afternoon. Consider all this now, really anything could happen.

Dinkelman was asked about the if-necessary third game being only seven innings. That’s what happens in the regular season.

“That’s a little tough,” he said. “You play nine-inning ballgames all season, and in a winner-take-all championship game, you go to seven innings. It does make a little difference because you can go to your bullpen earlier, you don’t have to throw as many innings. Not ideal, but that’s the way the rules are.”

Sometimes you’ve got to jump through a few hoops to win your first championship in 29 years.

Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com