Manager Pat Murphy sent a message to his team with the benching of two of his starters after uncharacteristic errors from each of them. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Sal Frelick overthrew cut-off man Rhys Hoskins on an RBI-single from Lars Nootbaar, allowing the Cardinals' outfielder to advance to second base. On the subsequent play, Nootbaar scored after Hoskins couldn't pick a low throw from Brice Turang, a play that he wouldn't have scored on if he hadn't advanced to second on the previous play.
In the following inning, Caleb Durbin, the Brewers’ third baseman, was picked off at second base after his RBI double broke up Sonny Gray's shutout. Durbin would have scored two batters later when Chourio roped a double to left field.
Each of the two plays resulted in a run that otherwise shouldn't have been or wasn't scored. In a game that was decided by a walk-off homerun in the ninth, those two plays made the difference. For a team like the Brewers, who pride themselves on their sound defensive play and base-running acumen, those types of plays are unacceptable and are the difference between a winning baseball club and a losing one.
Neither play was due to lack of effort or hustle, two traits that have not wavered throughout the Brewers' current losing streak, but Murphy's decision to bench two of his starters sends a message to his squad that they need to be sharper if they want to start winning games.
Who knows, but it might have cost him the game.
Not sure it's the way to handle it at the pro level, as players will occasionally make mistakes, and talking to them about it privately and professionally would seem a better course to me when it happens to players who don't make many of them and are giving their best effort.
JDW wrote: ↑27 Apr 2025 07:31 am
Who knows, but it might have cost him the game.
Not sure it's the way to handle it at the pro level, as players will occasionally make mistakes, and talking to them about it privately and professionally would seem a better course to me when it happens to players who don't make many of them and are giving their best effort.
That’s very possible.
I wonder, though, if he looked at it from the standpoint of, “I’m willing to possibly sacrifice one game if it wins more down the road”?
Obviously every game counts, but maybe he looked at it as a long-term investment.
JDW wrote: ↑27 Apr 2025 07:31 amWho knows, but it might have cost him the game.
Not sure it's the way to handle it at the pro level, as players will occasionally make mistakes, and talking to them about it privately and professionally would seem a better course to me when it happens to players who don't make many of them and are giving their best effort.
That's exactly what I thought when the author said "Durbin would have scored two batters later..." Gonna say those plays cost the game, but ignore the fact that pulling starters from the game, as punishment, is just as likely to have cost them the game.
JDW wrote: ↑27 Apr 2025 07:31 am
Who knows, but it might have cost him the game.
Not sure it's the way to handle it at the pro level, as players will occasionally make mistakes, and talking to them about it privately and professionally would seem a better course to me when it happens to players who don't make many of them and are giving their best effort.
ST. LOUIS – Pat Murphy doesn't hide his affinity for Sal Frelick and Caleb Durbin.
But the Milwaukee Brewers manager isn't afraid to hold his favorites accountable when they mess up, either.
Both youngsters learned the hard way in a 6-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on April 26 at Busch Stadium when they were lifted simultaneously in the fifth inning after each committed costly miscues in a game that easily could have swung the Brewers' way.
"Young players that weren't playing the right way," Murphy said afterwards. "These are young players, and they've got to know there's consequences for not playing right, or playing sloppy."
Frelick's mistake came in the bottom of fourth inning, after Masyn Winn had doubled to lead off against Quinn Priester.
Lars Nootbaar followed with a single to center. Frelick rushed in then airmailed his throw over cutoff man Rhys Hoskins; Winn scored easily while Nootbaar advanced to second.
Then the Cardinals, as they so often do, immediately cashed in when Willson Contreras squibbed an infield single just to the left of second base. Brice Turang, shaded to that side, fielded the ball but made an off-balance throw to first that got past Hoskins, allowing Nootbaar to score and St. Louis to increase its lead to 5-0.
"I fielded the ball, I'm like, throw it to Rhys's chest, and I overshot him," Frelick said. "I think it would be the same if I dropped a fly ball or an infielder overthrew the first baseman. I just made a terrible throw. I understand I was supposed to hit the cut and it was just not a good throw."
Durbin's gaffe came in the top of the fifth as he followed a Joey Ortiz bloop double with a hustle two-bagger of his own that got the Brewers onto the board at 5-1.
With Turang at the plate and nobody out, Durbin then was picked off second by Sonny Gray. Turang eventually walked and Jackson Chourio doubled, leaving it a 5-2 game when it should have been 5-3.
At the half-inning, Murphy put newly added Daz Cameron in right field in place of Frelick and Vinny Capra at third in place of Durbin.
Both players remained in the dugout and watched the rest of the game.
"No conversation," Frelick said when asked if Murphy explained his thinking. "Me and Durbs are pretty aware, though. We got benched, and it stinks. But yeah, you've got to make an example sometimes and I think me and Caleb understand that."
Murphy, who called a 35-minute, closed-door team meeting in the wake of a series loss in San Francisco two days earlier, confirmed his benching of Frelick and Durbin fell under the heading of "love and discipline" that he espouses.
"You don't get picked off down four," Murphy said. "You're a good baserunner – maybe one of our best baserunners –and you don't get picked off down four.
"You've got to send a message and take them out of the game if they're going to play like that. They know better, the both of them. They're two of our tougher guys. And I think you've got to set the standard with those types of guys."
**SNIP**
