The slumping Milwaukee Brewers needed a boost, and they got one from Willy Adames on Tuesday.
The shortstop blasted a three-run, ninth-inning homer to lift Milwaukee past the host Kansas City Royals 6-5 on Tuesday. The teams will play the rubber match of the three-game series Wednesday afternoon.
Before Adames’ heroics, the Brewers had lost three straight and six out of nine, and for the second straight night, they saw an early lead slip away against the Royals.
With Milwaukee trailing 5-3, Royals closer James McArthur retired the first two batters in the ninth. William Contreras then doubled and Gary Sanchez walked, setting the table for Adames, who had been exchanging friendly ribbing with a group of Royals fans seated near the Milwaukee dugout.
“We were talking the whole game,” Adames said. “They were being friendly and I was just having a good time with them.”
As he came to bat in the ninth, the fans increased their tempo.
“They were like, ‘We want Willy, we want Willy,’ and I went close to them and (said), ‘Are you sure you want me?'” Adames asked. “They (said), ‘We want you to hit a three-run homer.’ I was like, ‘All right, bet, let me do it. If Gary takes a walk, I’m going (to).'”
Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said, “Willy is telling the fans he’s going to do it. He’s announcing it to them over and over. Gary walks and he turns back to them and says, ‘Watch this.'”
Adames crushed the second pitch from McArthur into the left field bullpen.
“He didn’t come to us first,” Murphy said of Adames’ post-homer celebration. “He went to them first. It was really friendly. All good-natured fun.”
Adames said, “They were like, ‘That was the coolest thing.’ We had a good time and I signed a couple of balls for them. We had a great time.”
For Murphy, the rally reflected his squad’s competitiveness.
“That’s playing all nine,” the manager said. “When you play all nine, you’ve got a chance. Play every pitch. It came down to the last pitch.”
Adames added, “We never give up. We’re always battling. Things haven’t been going our way lately, but that’s part of the game. We’re always working hard to the end. We were lucky tonight to battle to the end and come out on top. Hopefully we can change the momentum and continue to do that as long as we can.”
The Brewers hope to take that momentum into the Wednesday rubber game as Milwaukee’s Joe Ross (1-3, 4.65 ERA) and Kansas City’s Brady Singer (2-1, 2.45) take the mound. Each right-hander will be facing the opponent for the first time.
Ross is 0-3 in his past four starts since earning his lone victory on April 9 at Cincinnati. In his latest start, against the host Chicago Cubs on Friday, Ross went six innings, allowing a run on six hits with four strikeouts and no walks.
Singer is coming off consecutive outings in which he permitted exactly one run on four hits. He struck out eight with no walks in six innings against the Texas Rangers on Friday.
“They made him work early,” Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro said. “He got behind a couple of guys, but his stuff looked really good. He got swing-and-miss right out of the gate. His stuff looked really sharp.”
Singer is 0-1 in four starts since collecting his last victory, April 11 against the Houston Astros. He hasn’t finished seven innings since his season debut on March 31.
“He wants to be out there longer than he’s been,” Quatraro said. “He wants seven, he wants eight.”
–Field Level Media
