MILWAUKEE — Sal Frelick stood in center field, his eyes wide, arms out and hat still on the ground, looking as momentarily confused as everyone inside American Family Field or those watching Game 1 of the National League Championship Series from home. The Brewers center fielder made a near catch and chaos ensued.
In the fourth inning against the Dodgers, Frelick started an improbable double play — one featuring some quick thinking by catcher William Contreras — that took a few minutes to sort out. When it was all said and done, the Milwaukee crowd was roaring after the announcement that the play halted what had the makings of a rally for Los Angeles.
With the bases loaded and one out, Max Muncy launched a 1-0 cutter from Brewers righty Quinn Priester to deep center field. Frelick sprinted back and to his right, chasing the fly ball down and attempting a leaping catch. The baseball struck the outfielder’s glove, but bounced out and hit the yellow top of the padded wall.
Left-field umpire Chad Fairchild immediately signaled safe, meaning that he recognized that no out was recorded on the play. At the same time, Frelick caught the ball off the deflection from the wall and fired it in to shortstop Joey Ortiz, who relayed it to Contreras at the plate.
Teoscar Hernández, who was at third base on the play, initially tagged up and started home, but then stutter-stepped and retreated to the bag before continuing on to the plate. That hesitation led to him arriving a moment too late, as Contreras caught the ball and stepped on home for the inning’s second out.
Will Smith (on second) and Tommy Edman (on first base) each began to advance before also retreating to their original base. Muncy, meanwhile, ran through first base — seemingly unsure if he had a hit or whether Frelick completed the catch. Recognizing the confusion on the basepaths, Contreras jogged up the third-base line and stepped on that base to force Smith out to end the inning.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts emerged from the visitors’ dugout to get clarification on what happened, and the umpiring crew convened to discuss the order of events. But the initial call by Fairchild made it clear that they understood that Frelick had not made the catch. And instead of a hit, Muncy had hit into a bizarre 8-6-2 twin killing.
Nonetheless, the Dodgers officially challenged the force plays at both home and third base, just to ensure everything was correct. After reviewing all the relevant angles of the play, the rulings on the field were confirmed.
Adding to the oddness of the play, the deep fly — one with a 104 mph exit velocity that nearly left the ballpark — went down as a fielder’s choice “groundout.” Due to two runners being forced out on the play, that was the classification for that ball in play. It would have been a homer at Dodger Stadium, along with eight other ballparks, per Statcast. And the projected distance of 404 feet marked the second-longest for any ball in play resulting in a double play in Statcast history (since 2015).
