@Wisconsin 6, Fort Wayne 2: Say good-bye to a losing streak.
@Burlington 7, Lansing 4: Big Burlington Base hits.
@Kane County 8, South Bend 5: Let's hear it for the Cougar bullpen.
Dayton 9, @Beloit 2: Snapper highlight...Jair Fernandez (WI, '07) 3-for-4 with a double.
@Peoria 2, West Michigan 1 (F/11): Samson was strong in the eleventh for the Chiefs.
@Clinton 4, Quad Cities 2: No LumberKing errors and one River Bandit ejection.
Great Lakes 8, @Cedar Rapids 7: This one deserves a full excerpt. This is almost the entire article, which I know you're not supposed to do, but this is a special circumstance. Emphasis mine
[Cedar Rapids reliever] Esmerlin Jimenez, who came off the disabled list Wednesday, was summoned from the bullpen to replace Jordan Walden with the bases loaded and two outs, but home-plate umpire Nate Thompson stepped in the way and wouldn't let Jimenez throw a pitch.That deserves a wow. 'Wow!'
[Kernel manager Keith] Johnson had neglected to list Jimenez on his lineup card. So even though Jimenez was on the active roster, he wasn't eligible to play.
"You've got to be on the lineup card," Thompson explained after the game. "Eight (Jimenez) wasn't on the lineup card, so he couldn't enter the game." (Rattler Radio note: Nice job getting a quote from the umpire by Jim Ecker of the Cedar Rapids Gazette.)
Johnson knew he made a mistake.
"I dropped the ball," he said after the game. "I just dropped the ball. The 25 players who are active are supposed to be on our lineup card. I had 24 active players on my lineup card, and Jimenez wasn't one of them."
It was not a simple fix.
Sammy Leon ran to the bullpen to get loose but wasn't ready to pitch. He would have been allowed only eight warm-up pitches on the mound.
"At that point," Johnson said, "I had to try my best to try and scramble and figure out the best scenario for the guys without getting someone hurt."
He took his starting shortstop, Jerry Gonzalez, and made him the emergency pitcher. He put Gordie Gronkowski, his designated hitter, at third base, and moved Jay Brossman from third base to shortstop.
Remember, the bases were loaded with the Kernels holding a 6-3 lead. Johnson told Gonzalez to intentionally walk Jamie Ortiz, forcing in a run, because Johnson figured it was better than risking a grand slam.
Meanwhile, Leon kept warming up in the bullpen and was called in to pitch.
Johnson sent Gonzalez back to shortstop, moved Brossman back to third and switched Gronkowski from third base to first, replacing Efren Navarro.
The whole thing might have worked, but Jovanny Rosario promptly laced a three-run double against Leon to give Great Lakes a 7-6 lead. The Kernels tied it, 7-7, but the Loons scored an unearned run in the ninth for the win.
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