With two outs in the ninth inning on Friday night, the Milwaukee Brewers led the Giants 4-3 with the No. 9 hitter coming up. It was as good a spot as any to wrap up the win, but in an 0-1 count, closer Trevor Megill threw a wild pitch to bring in the tying run. In the dugout before the Brewers went to bat in a 4-4 game, he delivered a message to his battery mate William Contreras. The message: Clean up the mess, will you?
Contreras answers bell with yet another big-time blast for Milwaukee Brewers
Megill doesn’t blame his catcher for failing to block the wild pitch, a 98 MPH dirtball that popped off Contreras high into the air and dribbled away to the backstop. The runner at third scored without contest.
“Well, I mean, I spiked about 100 at him, so it’s kind of on me,” Megill said. In the end it wouldn’t matter, of course, as Contreras launched a two-out walk-off bomb just minutes later for Milwaukee’s 81st win of the season. Consider Megill’s message answered.
“I went in the dugout there, and, you know, smacked him pretty damn hard, and told him to pick me up. And that’s exactly what he did. That’s what good teammates do.”
The homerun gave Contreras 14 for the season. After an injury-riddled first half sapped his power, he now has eight long balls in his last 22 games. In the month of August, Contreras has driven in 18 runs.
It isn’t just the homeruns, though; it’s when he’s hit them. With the Brewers down 1-0, his last one gave the Brewers a ninth-inning lead against the Reds that they ultimately squandered. The time before, his two-homer game against the Mets proved the difference in a 7-6 win. The day before that, his two-run shot in the seventh secured a 7-4 victory.
Asked how Contreras’ Friday heroics embody the team’s pick-me-up spirit, Megill said, “100%. That’s baseball. That’s a team like this, and that’s just kind of what we have to do going forward. Someone messes it up a little bit, just gotta pick that guy up and move forward.”
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