I’m not sure who’s brilliant idea it was to schedule baseball games the day of the draft, but here we are.
TOP PLAY (WPA):
The top play of the game, for the Mets, came very early on. In fact, it occurred in the first inning, with the first hitter of the game. Jimmy Nelson didn’t have the greatest outing of his life, and troubling signs were apparent early on when he fell behind 3-1 to Granderson who on the fifth pitch of the at-bat hit a leadoff home run.
The top play for the Brewers, however, and the game, came later. It occurred in the seventh inning when the Brewers were down 2-0. The Brewers were at-bat, down to their final out of the inning after the first two hitters of the inning got out. Kirk Nieuwenhuis doubled, showing one of the only glimpses of light against Colon. Nieuwenhuis actually almost homered, but he didn’t and that brought up Hernan Perez.
Since being called up, Perez has been hitting well with a .308 TAv. This time, Colon threw him a fastball which Perez lined on a hop to Neil Walker. Normally this ball is played routinely, but this ball wasn’t. This ball was crushed and it skipped off of Walker’s chest into the outfield. Nieuwenhuis was running on contact and went for it. He ran as fast as he could to home plate, praying that he would beat the throw, and bring the Brewers within one.
Well, he did, he barely got in, but he got in. He was safe, and he lost his helmet tumbling backwards propelled by his momentum.
The game was now 2-1.
WORST PLAY (WPA):
The worst play happened with none other than Perez himself, and it happened a little earlier in the game.
In the fifth inning, the Brewers were, you guessed it, down 2-0. Nieuwenhuis was at the plate and he singled to leadoff the inning.
You know what Perez did? He grounded into a double play, ending the rally.
Jimmy Nelson’s Jam:
Nelson, the aforementioned starting pitcher, was in and out of trouble all game. The trouble hit its apex in the fourth inning. The Brewers were down 2-0 and Asdrubal Cabrera led off the inning with a double. Wilmer Flores hit a hard single and just like that, there were men on first and third with nobody out.
With a 2-2 count on Kevin Plawecki, Nelson threw his slider and got Plawecki to swing and miss. This was a big out for a number of reasons, but perhaps most importantly because the next hitter was pitcher Bartolo Colon. While Colon has displayed supernatural ability with the bat, he’s still a pitcher. That said, Colon gave Nelson some trouble. He had a seven-pitch at-bat where he worked the count to 3-2. Colon had already fouled off one 3-2 pitch and Nelson wasn’t exactly throwing strikes with ease. But, Nelson luckily was able to strike out Colon on a fastball that seemed to of been high but that Colon swung through anyway.
As previously mentioned, Granderson led off the game with a home run, and he was now hitting with two outs. Nelson, however, hit him on the third pitch of the at-bat in the leg, which also seemed to do damage to Lucroy as it bounced off of his shoulder.
This loaded the bases for Conforto. Nelson was once again having a hard time commanding the strike zone as he fell behind 2-0. He then threw a fastball in the middle of the plate and got Conforto to hit a lazy fly ball to the shortstop.
The Brewers lost this game five to two but it could have been a lot worse. Nelson got lucky this inning. Typically, teams will make you pay for being this wild, and it’ll be something that he’ll need to improve upon in his next outing.