Grisham delivers a winning thriller
Rookie belts winning blast
It was easily Trent Grisham’s most memorable moment since being called up to the Milwaukee Brewers on Aug. 1, his three-run, eighthinning home run off Sergio Romo that beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-5, on Wednesday afternoon at Miller Park.
But the stage for his heroics was set by his failure against the veteran right-hander a night earlier in a game won by the Twins, 7-5.
Grisham came to the plate as the potential tying run, replacing Hernán Pérez as a pinch-hitter with two outs in the ninth, with Romo on the mound.
The two engaged in a nine-pitch battle with Romo spinning up sliders and sinkers, none of which reached even 88 mph before Grisham ultimately popped out to second base on an 81-mph changeup to end it.
Fast-forward to Wednesday, with the Brewers once again trailing by a pair of runs.
Ryan Braun had opened the eighth inning against Romo by reaching on an error by Jorge Polanco, and Pérez followed with a single to center. Braun, taking quite a chance, slid into third just ahead of Max Kepler’s throw.
That left two on for the leadoff hitter Grisham, who was 1 for 3 with a walk and a run scored to that point.
Each of Romo’s first four pitches
was low and away, with Grisham not offering at any.
That patience paid off, as Romo left an 87 mph meatball of a fastball over the plate that Grisham turned on and hammered into the second deck in rightcenter to give Milwaukee its first lead of the game.
It was an impressive piece of hitting, and one that helped the Brewers win despite another less-than-impressive outing by an offense that had managed to scratch out just three runs to that point.
“Seeing him last night, kind of seeing how he was attacking me, attacking other guys kind of gave me a little bit of an advantage,” Grisham acknowledged.
If Grisham’s pulse was racing during the at-bat one couldn’t tell. The demeanor he portrays in big moments is more reminiscent of a 10-year veteran than the 22-year-old rookie he is.
“That’s what you have to do, just treat it as a normal at-bat,” he said. “Go through the same checkpoints in your approach and your swing. Same as any at-bat.”
Through 35 at-bats, Grisham is hitting .314 with two homers and eight runs batted in to go along with an OPS of .893.
Throw in another 2-for-4 day with a walk, RBI and run scored from Keston Hiura, and the Brewers are getting bigtime contributions in meaningful moments from players who are looking like lineup fixtures for years to come.
“They’re getting great opportunities in fun baseball in a playoff chase,” manager Craig Counsell said. “They’re making the most of it. Trent has been outstanding since he’s been here. He’s done a fabulous job. Keston has continued to put together great at-bats.
“We have two young players – two rookies – hitting leadoff or hitting No. 4 or No. 2 in your lineup. They’re making the most of it, and they’ve earned it in those spots.”
While Hiura has been the unquestioned starter at second base since he returned from the minor leagues, Grisham continues to make a case for regular playing time. And with the ability to play any of the three outfield positions, he is making it easy for Counsell to pencil him in.
“You’re just trying to help the team win up here all the time,” said Grisham. “That’s really the fun thing about being up here – you can see the team consensus goal is just win.
“And winning is fun.”
In a perfect world, Grisham’s homer would have been followed by a 1-2-3 ninth from closer Josh Hader.
But with the left-hander being given the day off it came down to Alex Claudio and Matt Albers.
Claudio did his job quickly, getting pinch-hitter Luis Arraez to foul out to start the frame. Then Albers came on and got Mitch Garver to ground out, leaving him an out away from his fourth save.
Then came a loss of control that saw him walk Jorge Polanco, Miguel Sanó and Eddie Rosario in succession, leaving the crowd of 41,077 in a panic the day after Hader gave up a game-turning homer and bringing C.J. Cron to the plate.
But there was a method to the madness as the inning went on. Albers essentially pitched around the left-handed-hitting Rosario, who’d homered earlier in the game, to set up a force at any base as well as bring up a righty in Cron.
Albers threw a first-pitch ball to him as well. But he rebounded with two strikes and then got Cron to fly out to the end of the warning track in left-center to end it.
“Polanco, I wanted to make some tough pitches, too,” Albers said. “Obviously, they’ve got a really good lineup, some guys with power. I was just trying to make quality pitches. Sanó as well, I was trying to keep the ball down and away with the slider, and kept missing just off the plate. I got behind him, too, and said, ‘Crap, I don’t want to give in.’
“Rosario was the only one I was trying to pitch around, a little. Then get Cron or a guy off the bench. It ended up working out. I would have liked to get out of there without walking three guys but watching their lineup, you can’t make a mistake over the heart of the plate in a one-run game. I’m trying to either be right on the plate or miss a little.”
While most everyone’s heart probably skipped a beat, Cron immediately put his head down after his swing as centerfielder Lorenzo Cain calmly tracked the ball down.
“It sounded off the bat like it wasn’t (out) but nowadays you never know. It seems like anything up in the air isn’t coming back,” Albers said. “Once ‘Lo’ put his hand up and waved it, there was some relief.”
Claudio and Albers were preceded by two solid innings from Junior Guerra (6-3), with Jeremy Jeffress and Ray Black also throwing scoreless frames after Gio Gonzalez allowed three homers in the first three innings as the Brewers fell behind, 5-3.
“Our bullpen did a great job today,” Counsell said. “I’m going to highlight JJ. I thought his stuff was really good today; split-finger and curveball were really good today.
“Junior Guerra, man. It goes unnoticed, but if you pitch scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth, that keeps you in the game.”