Urias makes a major impact
It’s been a long time coming for Luis Urías.
After fits and starts caused by offseason hand surgery and then a bout with COVID-19, the young infielder finally made his presence felt for the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday afternoon.
He reached base four times and singled three times, including one in the 10th inning that drove in an important insurance run as the Brewers won their second straight against the Chicago Cubs in come-from-behind fashion, this one by a 6-5 score at Wrigley Field.
They improved to 2-0 in extra innings in this shortened season thanks to both some timely hitting and relief from an unlikely source.
Christian Yelich opened the extra frame at second, per the new extra-innings rules, and Avisaíl García wasted no time driving him in by punching a
leadoff double down the right-field line off former Brewers reliever Jeremy Jeffress.
Justin Smoak, up next, was robbed of his third run batted in when Ian Happ made a great diving catch in left on his sinking liner. After Ben Gamel struck out Eric Sogard lined a single to left, but it was hit too hard to drive García in.
That brought up Urías, who pulled a ground ball deep into the hole at shortstop. As good as Javier Báez’s arm is, he had no chance for the out at first so he ate the ball as García scored to make it 6-4.
“It felt great. It felt fun being out there, competing,” Urías said. “Playing with the Brewers this year is a lot of fun. I have a lot of great teammates. It’s been a while since I’ve had a (big play).”
It was almost a carbon copy of Urías’s first hit that tied the game at 3-3 in the fourth. He’d walked previous to that and also had a ringing single to center in the eighth as Urías continues to grow more comfortable the more action he receives after coming over from the San Diego Padres in an offseason trade.
“Impactful. I thought he was just impactful today,” manager Craig Counsell said. “There were a couple of infield hits but they were squared-up balls. He had a big game and that second run was obviously was the difference.
“That second RBI was a big one.” Alex Claudio would agree. He recorded the first two outs in the bottom of the 10th with Albert Almora scoring on the second, a groundout by Happ. The soft-tossing lefty kept his cool, though, and got David Bote swinging to record his first save since April 14, 2018, when he was with the Texas Rangers.
With both Josh Hader and Devin Williams unavailable to pitch after Friday night’s game, Counsell was forced to be creative after Adrian Houser bounced back from a rough start to provide five innings.
Brent Suter was terrific in his 22⁄3 inning stint, striking out five.
But the game took a quick turn when Counsell went with Corey Knebel to face Steven Souza with two outs in the eighth and Knebel threw a first-pitch fastball that wound up just making into the basket in left field to tie the game at 4-4.
Knebel finished the inning, then David Phelps got the game into extras with a scoreless ninth.
“Alex was going to face the first three hitters and Eric Yardley was going to come in after that,” Counsell explained. “With Happ being a switchhitter, and we figured there’d be a pinch-hitter for Heyward, we didn’t have any matchups for the first three hitters.
“But Alex did a great job. That’s the bottom line. He kept the ball down. He was stubborn about keeping the ball down. (Willson) Contreras hit a ball well but (Ben Gamel) made a nice play on it. That’s kind of how we were going through that.
“Our bullpen did a heck of a job again. One run in five innings, that’s getting it done.”
Houser allowed a solo home run to Anthony Rizzo and an RBI double to Happ in a 30-pitch first inning that also included three walks and a stern talking-to from Counsell after he issued that third free pass.
“I wanted to just get him back in the moment as much as anything,” Counsell said. “When stuff isn’t going good, you can get stuck on the last batter so I just wanted to get him back in the moment and look ahead to the next hitter.”
Rizzo’s RBI double in the second made it 3-0.
It took until the fourth for the Brewers’ offense to get to spot starter Colin Rea. Singles by Yelich and García set the stage for a two-strike, two-RBI double to left-center by Justin Smoak.
Three batters later Urías drove in Smoak to tie the game. It remained that way until the sixth, when Ryan Braun led off with his second double.
Urías drew a one-out walk after that, and both runners advanced into scoring position when Casey Sadler unleashed a wild pitch with Orlando Arcia at the plate. Arcia then did what you need to do in that situation – just put the ball in play – as he hit a sharp grounder just to the right of the mound with the infield in.
Second baseman Jason Kipnis was in position but let the ball trickle under his glove and into short center and
Braun scored to make it 4-3.
“It’s encouraging,” said Braun of the two straight comeback wins. He reached base all three times he came to the plate Saturday (two doubles) while also logging his first defensive innings of the season in right.
“I think the last few years that’s kind of been a staple for us, something we’ve been able to do, just steal some wins late in games, continue to compete, continue to believe that we’re going to come back,” he continued.
“We’ve really been scuffling offensively. So to see that happen a couple times, I think it’s something that we can build on and continue to get more confident as a group. Obviously, in a shortened season, every win is of the utmost importance and significance – especially the ones that look unlikely.”
The game was moved up to a 2:20 p.m. start from 7:15 with forecasts calling for inclement weather in the evening.
RECORD
Overall: 9-10 Home: 2-6 Road: 7-4
COMING UP
Sunday: Brewers at Cubs, 1:20 p.m. Milwaukee RHP Josh Lindblom (1-0, 5.68) vs. Chicago LHP Jon Lester (2-0, 1.06). TV: FS Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.