MILWAUKEE -- That.
Exactly freaking that's what I'm talking about.
When that ball was shot toward Rodolfo Castro's left at second base, with two Milwaukee runners aboard, with one out, with the Pirates up by two runs, it'd be reasonable to have presumed the worst. Chase De Jong, the last reliever standing, was struggling toward what'd have to be his first professional save. The formidable top of the home lineup was due up, led by powerful pinch-hitter Rowdy Tellez. And, of course, never to be forgotten here, there's always all that House of Horrors stuff.
But three individuals, and maybe not another soul in the stadium, presumed the absolute best:
Man, that's gorgeous.
Go ahead. Go back and press play again. And again.
Don't worry about me. I'll wait right here.
All good now?
Yeah, well, be sure that all three of those individuals -- Castro, Oneil Cruz and Michael Chavis -- were, too.
____________________
A few minutes after this 4-2 victory had been finished by this phenomenal effort Tuesday night, I'd approached Castro and Cruz at their predictably adjacent stalls in American Family Field's visiting clubhouse. Seated. Smiling. Seemingly savoring it all. And I'd asked, without having to ask, if they'd had a chance to see the sequence on video.
Both shook their heads, even as both looked down at the iPhone I'd had out, as if to assume I had it queued up. Which I did.
But before I could press play, Castro's index finger beat me to the touch, narrowly ahead of Cruz's finger attempting the same.
All right, let's do it once more for ourselves, as well, but this time from a different angle:
Come on show of hands: Who really believed that'd be two?
I canvassed the room.
"No, not off the bat," Ke'Bryan Hayes told me. "That's not a double-play ball. But then, once Castro got to it ..."
"I'm not thinking two," Bryan Reynolds told me. "But once it's in Cruz's hand ..."
"I'm hoping for one out there, because it'll take a good play by Castro just to get one," De Jong told me. "And when it gets to Cruz, I'm just looking for Jason Delay to give him a hug."
His catcher. How cool.
The manager's reply was little different:
"No, I was just hoping Rudy would get to it," Derek Shelton answered without apology. "And then once he got it into Oneil’s hands ... I mean, we've talked a lot about the arm and we saw it there, but that was a hell of a turn by Rudy. You don't see very many turns where a guy's gotta go that far on a ball hit that hard, and then the return throw gets a good runner ..."
He tailed off, too. They all did.
Castro and Cruz are best buds. They've been that for years. Back in Bradenton, when it'd been clear both were on the cusp of becoming teammates in Pittsburgh, both spoke passionately of looking forward to the day they'd turn double plays in the bigs. And this game brought the first two, including one they'll long remember.
And downplay at least a little. Just enough so they won't seem as if they're doubting they could do it.
"I'm thinking two," Castro told me of his approach to the ball. "I know he's there."
He motioned with his thumb toward Cruz.
"If he gets the ball ..."
"Ninety-nine!" Cruz would playfully interject with a devilish grin, as if he knew the, um, exit velocity from his hand.
And Cruz was confident, too.
"Every time. Every. Time."
So was the final participant, and I found this as fascinating as any of it in that Chavis unmistakably set himself at first base -- stretched out to a degree that'd make Simone Biles blush -- toward ... not Castro but Cruz.
"You saw that, huh?" Chavis replied with a corner-of-the-mouth smile when I'd raised that with him. "I did think they'd try it. I really did. And I knew if Castro could find a way to get it to Cruz, we'd do it."
Bigger smile now.
"I'm glad we did. Man, we needed this. What a feeling."
He motioned over to the other two.
"What a feeling for them, though, huh?"
Yeah. Almost as if that sort of thing matters.
____________________
Look, I'm not running through it all over again. The column that followed the first game here Monday night, the one that called out everyone from Bob Nutting, Travis Williams and Ben Cherington on down for failing to support the legitimately gifted foundation they do have at the big-league level, augmenting them only with waiver-wire recyclables and, thus, allowing these youngsters to languish, allowing them to be connected to a laughingstock on some fronts ... I'd hope that spoke for itself.
Similarly, I'd hope a performance like this one, too, would get appreciated back at 115 Federal in its own right.
Because, just as they're distant, willfully or otherwise, from the doom-and-gloom events like the one Monday, they're also not present for a positive like this outcome. And there's no way they could conceivably receive in any calls or reports the kind of residual benefit that Chavis described above regarding those two kids.
Who's seeing, for example, this new Mitch Keller?
Remember a couple weeks ago when he was yanked from a start with what was identified only as 'fatigue,' a designation that undoubtedly had everyone fearing an injury?
Well, I asked him after this superlative start -- six innings, two runs, four hits, career-high 10 Ks -- whatever happened to that diagnosis?
Watch him light up:
To say this in the best way: I don't even know who he is anymore. Not with how tall he's standing off the mound, and not with how he's blowing through and around hitters, as he did here with 96-mph heat and everything else in his arsenal clicking on command.
What'd be the justification, I'm dying to know, for dragging him back down by surrounding him for yet another year with more Josh VanMeter types?
Bob? Travis? Ben?
Why not instead pick him up?
Why not pick them all up?
No, not when the Altoona cavalry arrives in 2024 or whenever, but next year. As in this very winter. No more kicking the can down the road. No more tryout camps. No more tanking. It'll be Year 4 of this management, and the mulligans are as sour as month-old milk. Create a real supporting cast. Increase the payroll to $100 million, identify the holes, and fill them with a few bona fide players.
Make it feel like progress. Make Keller feel like there's progress afoot. And Castro, Cruz and the rest of the rookies. And Reynolds and Hayes. As one American League scout working this series told me over dinner here, "There are some good players on that team. And they'd be even better players right now if they were on winning teams."
I mean, of course they would.
It was Nutting himself, as I recall, who spoke upon hiring Cherington and firing his predecessor that nothing had ticked him off more about Neal Huntington's tenure than seeing players improve -- or even blossom into stardom -- only once they'd left Pittsburgh.
Maybe straighten the place up, huh?
Or hey, just give it up to a new landlord who'd be a lot more invested in the current tenants.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
Panoramic view of American Family Field from the press box, Tuesday afternoon, Milwaukee.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 15-day injured list: RHP David Bednar (back), RHP Colin Holderman (right shoulder), LHP Dillon Peters (left elbow)
• 60-day injured list: RHP Yerry De Los Santos (lat), OF Canaan Njigba-Smith (wrist), RHP Blake Cederlind (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow), C Roberto Pérez (hamstring)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Oneil Cruz, SS
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
4. Ben Gamel, DH
5. Rodolfo Castro, 2B
6. Jack Suwinski, RF
7. Michael Chavis, 1B
8. Tucupita Marcano, RF
9. Jason Delay, C
And for Craig Counsell's Brewers:
1. Christian Yelich, LF
2. Willy Adames, SS
3. Hunter Renfroe, RF
4. Kolten Wong, 2B
5. Keston Hiura, 1B
6. Andrew McCutchen, DH
7. Jace Peterson, 3B
8. Victor Caratini, C
9. Garrett Mitchell, CF
THE SCHEDULE
The finale's a Wednesday matinee: It'll be Zach Thompson (3-10, 5.33) vs. Freddy Peralta (4-3, 3.69) with a first pitch of 2:10 p.m. Eastern.
THE CONTENT
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