Friday night's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates afforded several highlights for the Brew Crew. The team got back to its winning ways and claimed the best record in all of baseball, but there was also one particular play that will surely stay in the back of everybody’s minds for a while.
During the sixth inning – with the Brewers up 4-2 – catcher Martin Maldonado came to the plate. Maldonado isn’t known for his hitting skills particularly, being a .222 career hitter with only 12 HRs, but on Friday night he made sure everybody was talking about him.
He did something it has never been seen before during the modern era: Maldonado tore – literally – the cover of the baseball with his swing. Many might expect a player to do that with a mammoth HR, but Maldonado did it on a weak grounder to third base.
Maldonado was called safe with an infield hit, and this ended up generating another run when Carlos Gomez followed with another infield single of his own to put Milwaukee up 5-3 at the time.
Even Bob Uecker – Mr. Baseball himself – was impressed and was quoted saying he had “never seen something like that before.”
Even manager Ron Roenicke said it was something “goofy” but it surely boosted his team to another win on the road this season. It’s safe to say that the Brewers are off to a miraculous start because their players are, at least in this instance, literally destroying the baseball when they step up to the plate.