Stewart suffers first loss for the Kernels

CEDAR RAPIDS - The 10th professional start of ballyhooed Minnesota Twins pitching prospect Kohl Stewart finally produced his first decision. Trouble was, his West Michigan counterpart prevented it from going in the win column.

Twins Director of Minor League Operations Brad Steil and a crowd of 1,346 watched Stewart yield four hits and two runs in five innings as the Whitecaps beat the Kernels, 5-2, last night at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

'I left a couple of balls up, got behind in the count a couple times,” Stewart said. 'I felt good, I felt like my command was there.”

Stewart (0-1), who walked one and struck out three, was bested by a dominant performance from West Michigan starter Buck Farmer. Farmer (2-1) gave up two hits and struck out 11 in seven scoreless innings. Cedar Rapids (8-7) avoided the shutout, with two ninth-inning runs in its fourth loss in a row.

'I think if I make my pitches and stay ahead, I give us a chance to win,” Stewart said. 'I'm just trying to go right at every hitter. I think if I make a good pitch I'll get them all out.”

Working under a 75-pitch limit this month and next, the fourth-overall pick in last June's Major League Baseball amateur draft retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced with a fastball that topped out at 95 miles per hour.

Stewart struggled his second time through the Whitecaps' lineup, surrendering a single and a double to begin the fourth inning. Dominic Ficociello broke the scoreless tie with a sacrifice fly to left field, then Ben Verlander doubled off the left-field wall for a 2-0 lead.

'I think if I get ahead on those guys I can really throw whatever I want,” Stewart said.

'I'm sitting there 2-and-0, 3-and-1, and I don't want to walk anybody so I am having to throw fastballs. I think I probably caught too much of the plate on some of them. If I could go back, that's one thing that I'd try to fix.”

Verlander, the 22-year-old younger brother of Detroit Tigers pitching ace Justin Verlander, had two of the four hits off Stewart. Kernels reliever Josue Montanez gave up a towering three-run homer to Wynton Bernard in the seventh.

Bryan Haar struck out three times against Farmer but extended his hitting streak to eight with an eighth-inning single. Former Cedar Rapids Washington prep Chad Christensen was 1-for-4 with a single and three strikeouts in his first game since Sunday (elbow).

Prior to the game, the Kernels announced the addition of catcher Bryan Santy from Extended Spring Training. Santy replaces catcher Michael Quesada, who was placed on the 7-day disabled list (retroactive to April 17) with a right wrist contusion.

The Kernels hope to avoid a three-game sweep today at 2 p.m.