Nothing about the Milwaukee Brewers’ rise to a National League power this season has felt normal, so it’s fitting that they benefited from one of the wildest plays of the 2025 MLB Playoffs in Game 1 of their NLCS series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the fourth when Max Muncy came to the plate. Muncy pushed a Quinn Priester pitch into deep center field, and it looked like it was about to go over the wall. Sal Frelick of Milwaukee followed the ball to the wall, put a glove on it…. but the ball shot out of his glove, off the wall and back into his glove. Frelick then threw to the plate, where Los Angeles runners were struggling to come back and score. The relief throw beat the runner for the force out, and then catcher Willson Contreras ran to third for the third out of the inning.
Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it? Watch the full sequence here.
Here’s another look at the confidence pitch and run to third to get two force outs.
The Dodgers thought Frelick caught him and Teoscar Hernández tried to score from third to home. The ball hit the wall, so it was not caught. The throw beat Hernandez for the force out, and then the runners needed to advance but didn’t, so Milwaukee was also able to get the force out at third.
The Dodgers were so close to a grand slam that it instead turned into an inning-ending double play. There’s nothing like playoff baseball.