Steele dominates, Kernels win opener

It's scary to think what Keaton Steele could have done had he used his best pitch.

The Twins prospect recorded a career-high nine strikeouts over eight innings on Saturday as Cedar Rapids held on for a 3-2 win at Peoria in Game 1 of the best-of-3 Midwest League semifinals.  Despite rarely deploying his sinker, Steele faced the minimum after allowing a run in the first.

The 23-year-old right-hander was 3-0 against the Chiefs during the regular season, which gave him confidence heading into the series opener start.

"I was trying to stay away, keep the ball down. It worked out pretty well," Steele said. "I was getting ahead and didn't shake [catcher] Brian [Navarreto]. He's got an unbelievable feel for the game. He knows what hitters want to see and what they don't want to see."

The first two Chiefs reached base and Darren Seferina scored on a sacrifice fly by Cardinals No. 16 prospect Harrison Bader'. But other than a leadoff single in the third by Kenny Peoples-Walls, who was erased on a double play, that was it against Steele.

"From the first pitch, I felt settled," Steele said. "After the infield hit and hitting a batter, I tried to limit the damage. From the next inning on, I told myself, 'Don't let the first guy get on.'"

The 2014 eighth-round Draft pick credits batting coach Tommy Watkins for positioning the Kernels defense.

"He didn't miss a single hitter tonight with his placement," Steele said. "There were some hard-hit balls right to guys. They made all the plays tonight."

LaMonte Wade had staked Steele to a lead in the top of the first when his ground-rule double scored Rafael Valera. Max Murphy put Cedar Rapids in front with a two-run homer in the seventh.

"Max played his college ball here [at Bradley] and had a lot of family at the game, so to hit that homer was absolutely huge," Steele said.

Nick Anderson allowed a triple and a single in the ninth but struck out the next three Chiefs to record his third postseason save.

Game 2 is Sunday at Cedar Rapids.

In other MWL playoff action:

Lansing 5, West Michigan 4
Tom Robson allowed one run on four hits over six innings to get the win and Tim Mayza converted a seven-out save to help the Lugnuts take Game 1 of the best-of-3 Eastern Division finals. Chris Carlson, Ryan McBroom and D.J. Davis each had two hits and an RBI for Lansing, which hosts Game 2 on Sunday. Mike Gerber and Francisco Contreras homered for the Whitecaps. Box score