Moustakas brings playoff experience to Brewers
MILWAUKEE It sounds, at first, like a long, drawn out “Booooo!”
But look at the name on the scoreboard and it becomes apparent what fans at Miller Park are really chanting. “Mooooose!”
Mike Moustakas has been a hit with Milwaukee Brewers fans and teammates since being acquired from the Kansas City Royals at the end of July. They appreciate his solid third base defence, and his left-handed power stroke was key in getting Milwaukee through the NL Division Series.
In the clubhouse, his focused demeanour and extensive postseason experience have made him a source of steadiness for a club in the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
“Amazing, amazing. He’s a great teammate,” said utility man Hernan Perez. “He’s been in this situation.”
Moustakas and Brewers centrefielder Lorenzo Cain helped Kansas City reach the World Series twice, including their championship run in 2015. Game 1 of the NL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers is Friday at Miller Park.
Moustakas hit .364 in a threegame sweep of the Colorado Rockies in the NLDS with two RBIs. He had a game-ending, two-out RBI single in the 10th inning in Game 1 and an RBI single in the eighth inning of Game 2 to help break open what had been a 1-0 game. A cool hand in tense moments. “The more experience that you can gain, the better off you’re going to be,” Moustakas said Wednesday.
Overall, Moustakas is hitting .234 with six homers and 17 RBIs in 34 games over eight post-season series.
“But his experience, it’s important. It really is,” manager Craig Counsell said last week. “Making sure we don’t put the result ahead of the process in our at-bats, and I think Moose is doing a heck of a job of that.”
The Brewers had to get creative to add Moustakas to the lineup, with Travis Shaw already the regular third baseman.
Shaw accepted a switch to second base, a new position and potentially awkward fit for the 230-pound slugger. The rationale was that the Brewers employ so many infield shifts, lining up at second wouldn’t be a hard transition. Moustakas also volunteered to move over.
Shaw stuck at second and has played fairly well, allowing the Brewers to have three lefty bats in the lineup to go with MVP frontrunner Christian Yelich.
“It says volumes of the kind of player that he is and the kind of person he is,” Moustakas said about Shaw. “I think the unselfishness of him and this team is why I’m a good fit, because they let me come in here, play third. Just be myself and that’s huge.”
After setting the Royals’ singleseason home run record with 38 in 2017, Moustakas filed for free agency. He rejected a US$17.4-million qualifying offer in November.
Moustakas never received the multi-year, mega-million-dollar contract he anticipated. The Royals signed Moustakas to a one-year, $6.5-million contract.
“It’s definitely been an interesting year, but I’m very happy with the way everything turned out,” Moustakas said last week. “I was able to sign back with Kansas City, I got traded here and now I’m in the post-season again. Everything happens for a reason.”