Stellar Suter flashes leather on diving play
'Raptor' tumbles, lays out to tag Gordon in support of his own cause
MILWAUKEE -- Brent Suter works fast, hits 430-foot homers off Cy Young Award winners, performs Jim Carrey impressions and uses the theme from "Jurassic Park" as his walk-up music, but it seems like his favorite thing might be dirtying his uniform.
Whether it be the Brewers left-hander's dinger off Corey Kluber in May or when he had no other answer for trainers after taking a ball off the chest in early June than that "it hit off my nipple," Suter is quite the jack-of-all-trades when it comes to doing the unexpected on the diamond, and his fifth-inning putout of Alex Gordon in Wednesday afternoon's 5-4 loss to the Royals at Miller Park perfectly illustrated that.
Suter showed off some tumbling expertise, stumbling off the mound to grab Gordon's slow-rolling grounder, getting back up and then diving to apply a tag on Gordon, who was sliding into first.
"I got it and I felt my body saying, 'Roll and just flip it to [first baseman Jesus Aguilar],'" Suter said. "But I got up and saw that Aggy wasn't there, so I just had to run and get him. It was kind of a blur, and it kind of knocked the wind out of me for a bit, but then my adrenaline came back. It was definitely one of those energy-expending plays, but I was happy I was able to make the out there."
Brewers manager Craig Counsell and athletic trainer Dan Wright went out to check on Suter, but the "Raptor" stayed in the game.
"We just wanted to give him a little time," Counsell said. "He dove on the ground twice, and the second fall was pretty hard, so just to make sure everything was OK. He knocked the wind out of himself just a little bit, but he was fine."
Brad Miller, who made his Brewers debut last weekend and hit a three-run homer in the ninth, was sitting on the bench next to Travis Shaw when Suter showed off the acrobatics.
That's when Shaw turned to Miller and told him, "Yeah, that's pretty standard."
Suter retired the first 11 Royals he faced Wednesday before Mike Moustakas broke through with a fourth-inning single. He was sharp until the seventh inning when Moustakas drilled a home run to right field, the first of five runs -- four of which were credited to Suter -- in the frame.
"In retrospect, the home run just got him off track," Counsell said. "He was pitching very, very well. He was efficient, pounding the strike zone, to that point there were no walks. Pitching very well, and Moustakas hit a nice pitch, and then a base hit, walk, base hit, and we were in a tough spot."
Suter exited after six-plus innings with the bases loaded in the seventh, and the Royals cleared them off Josh Hader to take a 5-1 advantage.