If you needed a moment or three to process the madness that was the remarkable Milwaukee Brewers double play in Monday’s NLCS game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, you weren’t alone.
The man tasked with describing the play to millions of TV viewers in real time can empathize. TNT’s Brian Anderson faced one of the most difficult play-by-play calls in recent sports memory as the unprecedented bases-loaded double play unfurled before his eyes. All things considered, he did a fine job.
The morning after the play that didn’t propel the Brewers to victory but did produce a moment of baseball history, Anderson spoke with Sports Business Journal about his experience on the mic.
“That is a play that we’ve never actually seen before,” Anderson told SBJ. “None of us. Because it’s never happened. I’ve been calling baseball games for 32 years now, over 5,000 baseball games in my life, and I’ve never seen anything close to that.”
The play was officially scored an 8-6-2 double play in which Brewers center fielder Sal Frelick bobbled, then corralled Max Muncy’s deep fly ball off the top of the center-field wall, fired a pinpoint throw to shortstop Joey Ortiz, who relayed the ball to catcher William Contreras for a force-out of Teoscar Hernández at home.
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At that point, Dodgers baserunners were confused. Will Smith started the play on second and made it halfway down the line to third on the fly ball. But he returned to second to tag up, unaware that Frelick hadn’t actually caught the ball. But the ball was live, and Muncy wasn’t out because Frelick corralled it off the wall.
Contreras realized what was going on. And he ran from home plate to third base for a force-out of Smith long before Smith reached the bag.
Here’s how Anderson called it:
“And Muncy skies one to center field, hit well. This one’s got a chance,” Anderson said. “Frelick going back to the wall, he leaps, it’s in and out of his glove, but he caught it. And now chaos on the bases.
“Might have a play at the plate, the throw, not in time. No he’s out! He’s out! It’s a force play at the plate. And he is out.”
Anderson told SBJ that he was tracking the ball in the outfield and not watching it on his monitor. He said the he missed the safe call of Muncy by left-field umpire Chad Fairchild when the ball bounced off the outfield wall. There was simply too much to keep track of at once.
“In hindsight, yes, I wish I would’ve taken my eye 200 feet to the left and picked up Chad, but also the ball is in play,” Anderson said. “It’s like, man, I need a couple sets of eyes there.”
Only moments later as they watched the replay did the TNT crew realize that Contreras had run to third for the force-out of Smith.
‘Max Muncy grounds into double play’
Dodgers baserunners, viewers and the TNT crew weren’t the only ones struggling to process the play. Even given the benefit of hindsight, official scorers came up with this description:
“Max Muncy grounds into a double play, center fielder Sal Frelick to shortstop Joey Ortiz to catcher William Contreras. Teoscar Hernández out at home. Will Smith out at 3rd.”
That’s how it reads in the official scorebook, per MLB. And yes, you read that correctly: “Max Muncy grounds into a double play.”
Even official scorers didn’t know what to do with the 404-foot blast to center field that was almost a grand slam but instead resulted in an inning-ending double play — and never touched the ground.
Which makes it all that more remarkable that Brewers defenders executed the play. While everybody else was confused, Frelick, Ortiz and Contreras processed the play mentally in real time, made correct pinpoint decisions and executed those decisions to perfection. And Contreras was heads-up enough to secure the second out at third in the middle of the chaos.
And on a play that initially looked like a potential grand slam and would have surely plated multiple runs had Frelick not secured the ball off the wall, the Dodgers came out of the inning without scoring a run.
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