Haar, Kernels play long ball, storm past L'Kings in rain-shortened W
Cedar Rapids, IA - Friday night, the Clinton LumberKings (3-6, 33-44) batters had no answers for the Cedar Rapids Kernels' (3-6, 34-45) pitching staff - specifically left-hander Lewis Thorpe and right-hander Todd Van Steensel - in a 6-5 loss. Saturday evening at Perfect Game Field, it was Clinton starter Carlos Misell who had no answer for Bryan Haar at the plate.
Misell (6-8) - who entered his 15th start of the season having allowed just four home runs in 71.2 innings - saw the Kernels crush three homers in the right-handers worst outing of the season. The 22-year-old lasted just 1.2 innings and allowed eight runs - four earned - on five hits and two walks.
The Kernels got to Misell for three runs in the first behind three hits from the first four batters. Leadoff hitter Zack Granite singled and moved to third on Engelb Vielma's double to right. After Misell struck out Chad Christensen, Haar launched his 9th home run to left, and the home run derby was officially underway.
Clinton's Jack Reinheimer joined the parade in the second, drilling a solo blast to left, cutting the Kernels' lead to two, but Haar punctuated the night in the bottom half.
Kernels catcher Bo Altobelli led off the bottom of the second with his first home run of the season, giving Cedar Rapids another three-run lead. Misell retired the next two batters and appeared he'd escape the frame allowing just one run. But a Reinheimer error at short continued the inning and back-to-back walks followed, loading the bases for Haar. The slugger worked a full count before hitting a towering drive to straightaway center. The ball cleared Aaron Barbosa's glove - and wall - by a matter of inches for a grand slam. The blast gave him a career-high seven-RBI game, and it took just two innings to do so.
Down 8-1, the L'Kings clawed their way back, scoring one run in the third on Barbosa's two-out RBI single. Clinton got another run back in the fourth on Chantz Mack's 4th home run of the season. Mack's opposite-field blast to left landed just a few fair inside the foul pole, pulling Clinton within five, 8-3.
The LumberKings comeback hopes continued in the fifth, thanks to four singles and a sacrifice fly by Mack. The deficit was 8-5 halfway through.
The Kernels plated one unearned run off of Nick Valenza in the bottom half, however. The left-hander fielded a Christensen bunt and airmailed Justin Seager at first by 20 feet which allowed the ball to roll all the way into the right-field corner. Christensen sprinted to third and scored one out later on Jason Kanzler's RBI single to left.
Following a scoreless inning for both clubs in the sixth, the tarp was pulled across the infield during the top of the seventh and 30 minutes later, the game was announced official. The game was also delayed in the top of the fourth inning due to showers and in total, 3,720 fans were forced to sit and wait for an hour and one minute.
Cedar Rapids starter Ryan Eades (5-7) pitched five innings and gave up five runs - four earned - on seven hits, two being home runs. Like Misell, Eades hadn't allowed many long balls - just two in 60.2 innings entering - but he doubled that thanks to wind gusts between 20-30 MPH prior to the first delay.
Aaron Barbosa raised his average to .359 in 21 games after going 3-for-4 hitting second. Batters one through five went 8-for-16 while the bottom four combined to go 0-for-11 with six strikeouts.
Clinton and Cedar Rapids meet for the third game of their four-game series Sunday afternoon at Perfect Game Field. The L'Kings will send right-hander Edwin Diaz (2-4, 3.66) to the mound against Kernels right-hander Ethan Mildren (2-5, 4.98). First pitch is scheduled for 2:05 PM CT. The game can be heard on WCCI 100.3 FM, wcciradio.com, and lumberkings.com.
@CheyneReiter