ST. LOUIS -- Put the champagne on ice. But be sure to save some for Brewers catcher William Contreras’ sore glove hand.
Milwaukee’s magic number to clinch the National League Central fell all the way to one when the Cubs lost in Cincinnati on Saturday evening and the Brewers beat the Cardinals, 3-2 in 10 innings at Busch Stadium on Brice Turang’s two-out single and left-hander Jared Koenig’s two scoreless innings of high-pressure relief.
That means Milwaukee will go into Sunday’s series finale vs. St. Louis needing either a victory over the Cards or another Cubs loss to the Reds to seal the Crew’s third consecutive division title and fourth in the last five years.
“The energy from the start of the game today was just different,” said swingman Chad Patrick, who started and kept the game close into the fifth. “It felt ‘mean.’ Hungry. ...
“I went out there for the 10th and you could just feel the energy there. It’s exciting.”
Not even a serious scare for star catcher Contreras could dampen the mood on the way to the Brewers’ 95th victory, leaving them one shy of the franchise record with seven games to go. Contreras departed the game in the eighth inning after being hit on the left (glove) hand by a swing.
But Contreras was back on the bench by the 10th to watch Turang’s go-ahead single on a two-out, two-strike pitch, and then the game-changing double play in the bottom of the inning from Koenig to first baseman Andruw Monasterio to third baseman Chad Durbin to deny the Cardinals’ hopes of a comeback.
By then, Contreras had already undergone X-rays, which were negative. That’s a huge positive for the Brewers, and meant Contreras was in manager Pat Murphy’s office immediately after the final out to say he wanted to play on Sunday with the club on the cusp of clinching.
Did that surprise Murphy?
“No,” he said. “You know how the Contrerases are. They’re competitive.”
The play in question happened in the seventh inning with Cardinals designated hitter Iván Herrera at the plate, and it resulted in a catcher’s interference. Contreras, who has played all season with a fractured middle finger on that hand, remained in the game after a conversation with Murphy and a member of the athletic training staff, then returned to his position to catch flamethrowing reliever Abner Uribe in the eighth.
That lasted only two pitches, and there was no discussion this time. As Murphy was walking toward him, Contreras turned him around and walked directly into the dugout.
Contreras’ value goes far beyond his 17 home runs and .767 OPS, since he’s the quarterback for Milwaukee’s pitching staff. In this series alone, Brewers catchers are poised to catch three consecutive rookie starters, with Jacob Misiorowski and Patrick pitching the first two games and left-hander Robert Gasser expected to come off the injured list for Sunday’s series finale.
Gnarled finger and all, Contreras has started 125 of the Crew’s first 155 games behind the plate.
“He’s a bulldog, man,” Patrick said. “As soon as I saw him in here, I ran up to him to check on him to see if he was OK. As far as I know, it seems he’s OK. He’s the heart and soul. He runs the show behind there.”
The Brewers’ backup catcher is veteran Danny Jansen, who was acquired from the Rays at the Trade Deadline. He finished Saturday’s game and figures to catch Sunday’s matinee. Eric Haase, who was with Milwaukee all season until the Jansen trade, is the top catcher for Triple-A Nashville.
All three have had their moments as part of the Brewers’ vaunted run-prevention unit, which has been brilliant in each of the first two games of this St. Louis series. Before Turang delivered the go-ahead hit against Cardinals reliever JoJo Romero -- giving the manager “chills” by laying off a 2-2 slider away in order to get a sinker he could handle -- the Platinum Glove Award-winning second baseman made three tricky defensive plays in the sixth and seventh innings to help keep the game tied at 2.
Then, Turang watched as Koenig, back on the mound for the 10th in a rare multi-inning appearance, started what was arguably the Brewers’ biggest double play of the season.
Koenig fielded Brendan Donovan’s comebacker and noticed the Cards’ automatic runner -- Lars Nootbaar -- ranging off second base. Koenig looked the runner back, thought about throwing to second, and fired to first instead. Monasterio, who’d only recently entered as a pinch-runner, wasn’t expecting that, but he made the catch and fired a flat-footed throw to Durbin at third for out No. 2. Koenig then retired Herrera on a flyout to end the game.
“The moment he took a step back [toward second] I was like, ‘I’m getting an out. I’m not going to wait here.”
“That’s awesome to be part of that play,” Monasterio said, “but also, it’s awesome to be part of this team. What is the magic number, one? That’s exciting.”
The Brewers have been in this position before, which has taught everyone a valuable lesson.
“In reality, it is just another day,” Koenig said. “We have to come in here, compete, do our job and hope at the end of the day we’re celebrating.”