20 May, 2014 – Knuckleballs

ah… the ever so draining west coast road trip… Hope no one has to be anywhere in the morning this week… oh you do? Pretty sure those of us actually make it to the end of these games will be solely responsible for keeping Caribou in business.

Of course, this is also interleague play!! Wonder if we’ll actually get to see any of our pitchers bat…

Minnesota		San Diego
Dozier, 2B		Denorfia, RF
Mauer, 1B		Cabrera, E, SS
Plouffe, 3B		Smith, S, LF
Parmelee, RF		Headley, 3B
Suzuki, K, C		Venable, CF
Kubel, LF		Gyorko, 2B
Escobar, E, SS		Alonso, 1B
Hicks, CF		Grandal, C
Correia, P		Kennedy, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Minnesota	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	0	5	7	0
San Diego	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	3	5	0

Lots of interesting performances for the Twins, including Kurt Suzuki’s inside the park home run that left the park.

But Jared Burton entered the game with 2 on and no outs and kept both runners exactly where they were when he took the mound. That was impressive. And he is our BOD.

I’m traveling for work the first half of this week, so I won’t really have an opportunity to write a regular weekly update on the Cedar Rapids Kernels. Perhaps it’s just as well, though, because the Twins’ Midwest League affiliate did not have a real good week.

The Kernels dropped from the second spot in the MWL Western Division standings all the way to the cellar, as they endured an eight-game losing streak.

That losing streak ended Sunday in Burlington, however. Cedar Rapids topped the Bees 7-6. As a bonus, the win lifted the Kernels out of the MWL West basement.

Since I don’t have anything exciting to write about this week, I thought the least I could do is provide a few pictures of the game on Sunday. I had hoped to take more, but it turns out there are very few spots where you can take pictures at the Burlington ballpark that aren’t behind netting.

Some of the photos are a bit blurry. I hoped they just looked blurry on Sunday because I was having a few beers at the game, but no, they’re still a little blurry.

Manager Jake Mauer coaching 3B in the first inning. That's something he would not be doing by the 9th inning, however. — Manager Jake Mauer coaching 3B in the first inning. That’s something he would not be doing by the end of the game, however. Mauer was ejected in the 7th inning following a heated discussion with the umpires over a balk call.

Tanner Vavra pulling in to 2B with a double

Tanner Vavra chats with manager Jake Mauer. Vavra would ultimately be stranded at 3B.

Tommy Watkins took over 3B coaching duties following Mauer's ejection. — Tommy Watkins took over 3B coaching duties following Mauer’s ejection. Two runs scored in the 9th inning with Watkins and his bubble gum in charge.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Day: May 20, 2014

GameChat – Minnesota @ San Diego, 9:10pm

A Kernels Day in Photos