Watch: Two Brewers runners outsmart entire Cubs infield during wild rundown
Seemingly everything that can go wrong has gone wrong for the Milwaukee Brewers this season in their games against their division rivals, the Chicago Cubs.
Despite the fact the Brewers entered Tuesday’s matchup with Chicago with a National League-leading 39 wins, Milwaukee had lost eight of the first nine games played between the teams this season. Included in those losses were three one-run losses, and another loss by two runs and an almost-impossible-to-comprehend five shutout losses.
So forgive Brewers fans and players if they look at the bizarre play that happened in the third inning of Tuesday night’s game at Miller Park and wonder if maybe, just maybe, things are finally starting to turn in Milwaukee’s favor in this heated rivalry.
The Brewers were leading 2-0 with nobody out in the bottom of the third inning. Lorenzo Cain was at the plate, with Christian Yelich on second. Cain bounced a 3-2 pitch up the middle. Yelich broke for third, but Cubs second baseman Javier Baez made a backhand pickup and threw toward third to try and cut down the advancing Yelich.
Yelich, seeing he had no chance to beat the throw, got himself into a rundown between second and third and was able to keep the play active long enough that Cain had made his way around first and almost to second.
To that point, both Yelich and Cain had done what they had to do. Yelich strung out the play long enough that Cain would have, in essence, replaced him at second. There would have been one out, but the Brewers would have still had a runner in scoring position.
But Cain never touched second base. A step before getting to the bag, he peeked back toward first and noticed that nobody was covering the bag. Chicago’s first baseman, Anthony Rizzo, had gone to cover home plate in case the pickoff play went awry and Yelich tried to make a dash for home.
Cain, standing next to second, pointed to the base and told Yelich to get on the base. Meanwhile, Cain sprinted back to an empty first base.
By the time the Cubs realized they had completely botched the play, Yelich was on second, Cain was on first, and there was still nobody out.
Heads up baserunning by the @Brewers or a brain fart by the @Cubs?
You be the judge. pic.twitter.com/bH2OcvlJ3U
— Cut4 (@Cut4) June 13, 2018
It goes into the scorebook as Cain reaching on a simple fielder’s choice, but there was nothing simple about this play. It was not only a case of a very heads-up play by Cain — both to not only see no one was covering first but also to not touch second, which would have resulted either him or Yelich being tagged out because two runners can’t occupy the same base — but also good hustle by Yelich.
“That was a great play on his part,” Yelich said after the game of Cain’s effort. “I heard him yelling, ‘All the way back! All the way back!’ He was yelling at me, pointing at the bag. I just kept running hard and got there.
“That’s a really smart play. He said it’s something he’s practiced before, which is unbelievable. I guess if you think about it, it happens a lot. There’s a lot of throws in a rundown. Things kind of get chaotic and you can lose track of the bases sometimes.”
Cain gave much of the credit to Yelich.
“I just kind of peeked back and saw Rizzo wasn’t covering first,” Cain said. “Once I noticed he wasn’t at first, I just told Yelich to get on the bag. Credit him with hustling all the way, because if he slows down or stops right there, he’s out. And that’s normally what guys do — once I’m on the bag or close to the bag, they just shut it down. He kept hustling.”
And the importance of that play was magnified when the next hitter, Travis Shaw, lined a double into right field, scoring Yelich and Cain, giving the Brewers a 4-0 lead. Milwaukee went on to win by that same score, leap-frogging the Cubs to regain their half-game lead in the NL Central.
Considering how the Brewers have seemed to make every critical mistake against the Cubs in their agonizing losses, this botched rundown may be looked back upon as a turning point if Milwaukee finally starts to get the upper hand over their I-94 rivals this season.
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