Kernels take Game 1 of finals, 5-0

COMSTOCK PARK, Mich. - Pitching and defense, repeat. Pitching and defense, repeat.

There's no secret why the Cedar Rapids Kernels are perfect in the playoffs thus far. It's how this club has been successful the entire season.

Let's say it all together now, even if it's not the sexiest way to win ballgames: pitching and defense, repeat. Starter Felix Jorge and relievers Luke Bard and Randy LeBlanc combined on a five-hitter, and the Kernels rolled to a 5-0 win over West Michigan in Game 1 of the Midwest League Championship Series on Wednesday night.

'Just like we do,” said Kernels Manager Jake Mauer. 'Catch it and throw it and score enough runs to win.”

Cedar Rapids is 5-0 in the postseason, thanks primarily to an airtight (and pretty much errorless) defense and a pitching staff that has given up only five earned runs in 47 innings. That's a 0.96 earned run average.

'Oh, is that good? Is that good?” Bard said, kiddingly. 'And in the last few weeks, our hitters have really picked it up, too.”

Austin Diemer had an RBI single in a three-run fifth inning for Cedar Rapids, with Edgar Corcino's two-run double the other way to left an even bigger hit. The Kernels put it completely away in the eighth on a Max Murphy two-run single up the middle.

All nine guys in the batting order had at least one hit, so don't slight the offense. Right-fielder Corcino, who had a spectacular full-out diving catch to quell a potential rally in the third, is a former West Michigan player who was released by the parent Detroit Tigers.

So, basically, this performance had to feel especially good.

'It is amazing,” he said. 'I know a couple of guys over there on that team, and I like to see them and visit with them. But I want to show them the player that I have been able to become.”

Jorge went the first six innings against a West Michigan team that scored 14 runs on 22 hits in its previous game Monday night, using a lot of offspeed pitches to good effect. He gave up four hits and a pair of walks, striking out four.

Bard was absolutely nasty with an upper-90s fastball and slider that helped him strike out five of the six batters he faced. Randy LeBlanc, who would have been the starter in a deciding Game 3 against Peoria in the Western Division finals, finished things up with a scoreless ninth in his first postseason inning.

'That's as dominant as I've seen anybody this year,” Mauer said of Bard. 'To be honest, he would have been tough on a lot of big-league teams tonight.”

'I think winning Game 1 is huge,” Bard said. 'Not only from a momentum standpoint, but just having a win under our belts.”

So it's on to Thursday's 5:35 p.m. Game 2 of this best-of-5 series. Sam Gibbons gets the ball for the Kernels with a chance to help his team carry a gigantic hammer in this series going back to Cedar Rapids.

Game 3 is 3:35 Saturday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium. Games 4 and 5, if needed, are also at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

'Winning the first game is important, but this series is far from over,” said Mauer. 'They can swing the bats, and we're going to have to keep pitching. By no means is this series over.”

Prior to Wednesday's game, the Kernels and parent Minnesota Twins announced that outfielder Zack Larson has been activated from the disabled list, with catcher Alex Real going on the DL with a knee injury. Larson had been sidelined with an oblique strain.

He did not play Wednesday.

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