Travis Blankenhorn's clean steal of home in 8th gives C.R. Kernels 2-1 win over Clinton

CEDAR RAPIDS — Travis Blankenhorn wasn't completely sold on the play his manager called for with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning Saturday night.

It's not that the Cedar Rapids Kernels third baseman believed he would be a dead duck trying to steal home plate cleanly. It was more a concern for his own safety.

Teammate Brandon Lopez was the hitter, and he had two strikes.

'I said to Tommy 'What if he swings?' Blankenhorn said with a smile, after his gutsy theft gave the Kernels a gutsy 2-1 win over Clinton before 3,896 fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium. 'That's what I was worried about.'

There was no need for worry, as it turned out. Just jubilation.

Blankenhorn got a running start and sprinted down the third-base line, Clinton reliever Jack Anderson belatedly noticed, stepped off the rubber and buried a desperation heave past catcher Yojhan Quevedo. Blankenhorn already had slid head first over the plate by that time.

How incredible was this? Anderson is a right-handed pitcher who was in the stretch position, with an open view of Blankenhorn the entire way.

'The pitcher was looking down, kept looking at the ground the whole time,' Blankenhorn said. 'So Tommy was like 'Hey, you wanna go?' Umm, all right. He kept looking down, and I just kept creeping and creeping (toward home plate).'

'My heart's still pumping fast,' Watkins said, with a laugh. 'I just told Blankenhorn that when he comes set, he keeps looking at the ground. The third baseman was (off the line), so I told him 'Get big (on the lead).' I told him 'You are going to beat him before he has a chance to swing.' Man, the place went absolutely crazy. Unbelievable.'

Hey, anyway you can get a win in this situation. The Kernels (38-31) moved a game ahead of Quad Cities in the Midwest League's Western Division for second place and the final available playoff spot in the first half.

Quad Cities lost an extra-inning game late Saturday night to Beloit. Kane County won Saturday night to clinch the division's first-half championship.

There's one more game for everyone Sunday. If Cedar Rapids beats Clinton, it clinches second place and a playoff berth.

If the Kernels lose and Quad Cities wins, QC gets in via a single winning percentage point. If both teams lose, Cedar Rapids gets second and into the playoffs.

'We needed that win,' Watkins said, shortly before placing a call to buddy Jake Mauer, the former Kernels manager and now manager of Double-A Chattanooga, which won a playoff spot and a first-half division title Friday night.

Starting pitcher Tyler Wells (4-1) ended up with the deserved win. He went eight innings, allowed four hits and a run, walking none and striking out 10.

Hector Lujan pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his sixth save. Clinton scored in the top of the sixth inning for a 1-0 lead, but Cedar Rapids tied it up in the bottom half on a two-out Jaylin Davis RBI single off the shortstop's glove.

Blankenhorn led off the C.R. eighth by reaching on Clinton third baseman Joe Rizzo's fielding error, went to second on a groundout and to third on a Lewin Diaz lineout to right. Davis and Mitchell Kranson then walked, with Kranson receiving an intentional ball four.

The count then got to 2-2 on Lopez. You know the rest of the story.

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