Twins Minor League Report (9/10): Kernels Club Clinton In Game 1

With the score knotted at 3-3, Andrew Vasquez, who hadn’t pitched in a game since facing Clinton six days earlier, took the mound for Cedar Rapids to begin the fourth inning and shut down the Lumber Kings for four shutout innings, surrendering just one hit while striking out six.

Kernels manager Jake Mauer was appreciative of Vasquez’s work.

“He (Vasquez) calmed the game down pretty quick,” Mauer said afterward. “Anderson wasn’t his best and had a hard time putting people away. Andrew had a bunch of rest and he was ready to throw. They had a hard time with his breaking ball.”

By the time Vasquez gave way to Max Cordy in the eighth inning, the Kernels offense had plated six more runs, half of them powered by Christian Ibarra’s fifth inning 3-run home run. Ibarra also had a second inning double, driving in Kevin Garcia with the Kernels’ first run of the night.

In addition to Ibarra, Luis Arraez, Casey Scoggins, Jaylin Davis and Garcia each also chipped in two hits for Cedar Rapids.

Travis Blankenhorn went his teammates one better, however, contributing three hits to the Kernels offense, all singles, and lifting his postseason batting average to an even .500 (6-for-12 in three games). He also drove in a run and scored once.

Blankenhorn is one of three Kernels hitting .500 or better in the postseason. Zander Wiel is also at .500 and Arraez is stroking at .692.

Blankenhorn didn’t play his first game for the Kernels until August 9, but he has adjusted to Midwest League pitching quickly.

“I’m adjusted here,” Blankenhorn, the Twins’ third-round draft pick in 2015, said. “I’ve been playing with these guys a little while now. I think we’re all getting comfortable and starting to hit as a team. We hit very well as a team tonight.

“We had some guys that came up with some big hits with runners on base, got a couple RBIs and scored a couple runs.”

Cordy contributed a perfect inning of relief work in the eighth inning and Patrick McGuff worked himself into – and out of – a bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning to cap off the win for Cedar Rapids.

Cedar Rapids will travel to Clinton for game 2 of the series on Sunday, with game time scheduled for 6:35. If a game 3 is necessary, it will be played Monday evening, also in Clinton.