Adames' 'great swing' puts Crew on top

DENVER -- It wasn’t the biggest win in Milwaukee sports on Saturday night. But it was big.

About an hour after the Bucks came away with a dramatic win in Game 7 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference semifinals against the Nets in Brooklyn, the Brewers pulled off a dramatic victory of their own in Colorado, defeating the Rockies, 6-5, thanks to a ninth-inning homer by Willy Adames.

Sure, it was a regular-season game on June 19, not a winner-take-all postseason tilt, but when Daniel Vogelbach is jumping around in the dugout, you know something momentous has taken place.

“I wasn’t expecting him to do that, but he surprised me,” Adames said. “He told me the other day, ‘I’m not gonna jump -- the day I jump, it’ll be because it’s something special.’”

Adames’ homer was special, indeed. Already having doubled three times in the contest, he came to the plate with one out in the ninth and Milwaukee trailing, 5-4, in danger of dropping its sixth straight game after previously winning nine of 10.

The Brewers’ lineup entered the day last in the Majors in batting average (.209), second-to-last in slugging percentage (.354) and last with a .197 batting average with runners in scoring position. It had stranded seven men on base already in the game, including three after loading the bases with none out in the fourth.

Things seemed bleak heading into the ninth, even against a Rockies bullpen that entered the game 28th in the Majors with a 5.28 ERA.

But that’s when Luis Urías hit a one-out single to set the stage for Adames’ heroics. Adames launched a 1-2 slider from Rockies reliever Tyler Kinley over the right-center-field wall and into Colorado’s bullpen for his fourth hit of the game, and his biggest hit in a Brewers uniform.

“It couldn’t be a bigger spot,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Down in the count and, just, what a great … as he did all night, he put a great swing on the ball in a spot that we sorely needed it.”

The Brewers acquired Adames along with reliever Trevor Richards from the Rays last month to shore up their defense at shortstop after Urías was shaky there defensively to start the season. Adames’ stellar defense has been as advertised, but it’s his bat that has been the biggest lift of all.

With baseball’s No. 1 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, Wander Franco, knocking on the door to the big leagues, and Adames posting just a .625 OPS through his first 41 games, Tampa Bay decided to deal him for some relief pitching. So far, the move has paid dividends both defensively and at the plate -- Adames is hitting .295 with four homers in 27 games for Milwaukee in addition to his elite defense at short.

The other piece of that trade, Richards, came through in the clutch as well. He came into the game to pitch the bottom of the eighth and got into some trouble -- Brendan Rodgers singled to right, and following a Joshua Fuentes flyout, Richards walked both Elias Díaz and pinch-hitter C.J. Cron to load the bases. But the right-hander struck out Raimel Tapia before getting Yonathan Daza to ground out.

“He’s pitched really big in tough spots, there’s no question,” Counsell said of Richards. “He’s been a very effective member of this ’pen and a very welcome addition. And he’s filling a valuable role for us.”

Starter Adrian Houser gave up five runs on nine hits, but gave Milwaukee six innings and kept the club in the game. Josh Hader picked up his 18th save in 18 chances, working around a leadoff walk to Charlie Blackmon to close out the victory.

“I was proud of Adrian Houser,” Counsell said. “Things didn’t really go right for him, but he kept kind of limiting damage, and in this park, that can get you a win. And that’s what happened tonight.”

Avisaíl García drove in two runs with an RBI groundout in the first inning and an RBI single in the seventh. Christian Yelich drove in the Brewers’ other run on an RBI groundout in the third.

But this night belonged to Adames. And Counsell hopes his clutch hitting will inspire his teammates. Adames certainly believes this is a team that can do something special.

“It’s been tough, but I feel like good teams, they go through that,” Adames said. “Unfortunately, we were in that stretch, but thank God we got that win tonight. We needed that one.”

They did. And while it wasn’t a Game 7 victory in the postseason like their basketball brethren achieved, Adames would like to see more of what he did when he rounded the bases in the ninth inning Saturday night. Because that means something special has happened.

“Everybody was having a good moment there,” Adames said. “When I saw [Vogelbach] jumping, it made my night.”