Reliving An Iconic Home Run

I enjoyed the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s 50 in 50 Series, which ranked Wisconsin’s greatest sports moments over the last half-century.

Lists and rankings are inherently subjective. I remember when I worked as a reporter and picked all-area teams for high school sports. Some of the picks were obvious, but sometimes you were making a decision on two evenly accomplished players and there was only room for one.

I used to agonize ranking the top teams in weekly polls. Especially early in the season, you had so little to go on and may not have even seen many teams play. I still chuckle about the time I had ranked a team in the top ten but not as high as the team had hoped for, and the coach said after that was the motivating factor for its victory that day.

So back to the 50 in 50. Obviously, a ton of work went into this so kudos to the paper and sports writer JR Radcliffe for writing all 50 pieces; he is also writing the next 10 that just missed the list. This is a huge project and one he excelled at.

I also liked how the criteria was spelled out. “These are singular moments. You’re supposed to remember where you were when they happened.”

One random observation. With no sports going on for most of this stretch, why did one person write every story? For example, why wouldn’t the two Brewers beat writers handle some of the Brewers stories, particularly since they covered some of the moments for the paper. I’m sure they had plenty of rich stuff left in the notebook they weren’t able to share at the time because of space constraints. Same for the other sports.

Anyway, I want to write a bit about one moment that did not make the top 50 but did make the 10 that just missed the list. My  intent is not to criticize the omission (OK, maybe a little), but near the top of my list was Brandon Woodruff’s home run in game 1 of the 2018 NL Championship series. It is hard to imagine any Brewers fan forgetting that moment.

I was at Miller Park that night with my dad, brother and his son Roger. The Brewers trailed 1-0 and Woodruff, a relief pitcher who had just worked a scoreless third, was due up first. It’s not as if being down one run, even against the great Clayton Kershaw was insurmountable, but there was definitely nervous tension in the crowd.

What happened next almost defies description. Woodruff, who bats left-handed, facing an all-time lefty, clobbered a 2-2 pitch for a no-doubt solo homer to right-center. With the possible exception of the Easter Sunday rally in 1987, I’m not sure I’ve ever been more excited at a baseball game.

A big piece of it was the surprise and the stakes. No one was expecting a pitcher, someone with 10 prior at bats during the season, to hit a home run. Not just a home run, but a home run off a legend. The Journal Sentinel article included a fun stat that Woodruff was the second pitcher to homer off a former MVP in the postseason and the first since 1924.

According to MLB.com, this was the first time Kershaw allowed a home run to a left-handed hitting pitcher. Woodruff also became the third reliever in baseball history to homer in the postseason.

Woodruff told the Journal Sentinel he knew it was gone when he saw centerfielder Cody Bellinger pull up in front of the wall. “That’s about the time I started rounding the bases, and the emotion started coming out.”

Woodruff looked back at the Brewers dugout during his trip around the bases and he used all of his 6-foot-4, 215-pounds to dispense high fives. As Lorenzo Cain said in the same story, “he almost broke my arm. If you look at the replay, it was a pretty strong high-five.”

Oh, Lorenzo, we’ll get to that replay soon enough.

Woodruff’s homer electrified the crowd and the dugout and the Brewers were off to the races. The Brewers scored another run in the third and Woodruff worked a scoreless fourth (4Ks over 2 innings). The Brewers chased Kershaw from the game in the bottom of the inning with three more runs.

The Brewers led 6-1 going into the eighth but needed all of those runs in a 6-5 victory. The Brewers were  suddenly three victories away from their first trip to the World Series since 1982.

After the game, Mike Moustakas said Woodruff, “is a legend in Milwaukee right now.”

Moose, truer words have never been spoken. 

I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve watched the replay, but what’s one more?

All that’s left to do now is for Woodruff to walk us off.