What just happened?! Near HR robbery causes chaotic double play 

MILWAUKEE -- Sal Frelick stood in center field, his eyes wide, arms out and hat still on the ground, looking as momentarily confused as everyone inside American Family Field or those watching Game 1 of the National League Championship Series from home. The Brewers center fielder made a near catch and chaos ensued.

In the fourth inning of Milwaukee's 2-1 loss to the Dodgers on Monday, Frelick started an improbable double play -- one featuring some quick thinking by catcher William Contreras -- that took a few minutes to sort out. When it was all said and done, the Milwaukee crowd was roaring after the announcement that the play halted what had the makings of a rally for Los Angeles.

“I didn’t really know what happened,” Frelick said. “I really had no clue what was going on until like an inning later when I could see the replay.”

What happened was one of the more unusual double plays -- one officially scored an 8-6-2 fielder’s choice "groundout" -- in postseason history.

In fact, per the Elias Sports Bureau, there had never been an 8-6-2 double play in postseason history. At least not until Monday night.

To find the last 8-6-2 double play in a regular-season game, you have to go back to April 16, 2004. In the fifth inning that afternoon at Wrigley Field, Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa hit a ball to Reds center fielder Ken Griffey Jr., who caught the fly ball and started a double play that included Todd Walker being out at the plate.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before,” Brewers veteran Christian Yelich said. “It’s just one of those really weird, freak plays.”

“A crazy moment,” Contreras said via translator Daniel de Mondesert.

With the bases loaded, one out and no runs on the board for either team yet, Max Muncy launched a 1-0 cutter from Brewers righty Quinn Priester to deep center field. Frelick sprinted back and to his right, chasing the fly ball down and attempting a leaping catch to stop the potential grand slam. The baseball struck the outfielder’s glove, but bounced out and hit the yellow top of the padded wall.

During the postseason, the officiating crew for each game includes an umpire on each outfield line. For Monday’s game in Milwaukee, Chad Fairchild had the left-field duties and he immediately signaled safe on the play, meaning that he recognized that no out was recorded by Frelick in center.

“I see [Fairchild] immediately saying, ‘No catch,’” first-base umpire and crew chief James Hoye told a pool reporter. “They throw the ball in, and then all of a sudden you turn around and there’s runners everywhere, right? At that point, guys are going back, going forward. The coaches are spinning.”

Frelick caught the ball off the deflection without actually realizing it had struck the wall.

“I just kind of saw it floating there,” Frelick said. “So I grabbed it and just fired it in.”

Brewers shortstop Joey Ortiz headed into the outfield to serve as the cut-off man and listened for second baseman Brice Turang to shout where to throw the ball. Turang understood what happened in deep center field, kept an eye on Teoscar Hernández at third and told Ortiz to relay the ball to Contreras at the plate.

“I’m waiting on the ball from Sal,” Ortiz said. “He made a good throw and, luckily, Brice was loud enough to let me know to go [home].”

Hernández, who was at third base on the play, initially tagged up and started home, but then stutter-stepped and retreated to the bag before continuing on to the plate. That hesitation led to him arriving a moment too late, as Contreras caught the ball and had a foot positioned on the plate for the force and the inning’s second out.

“It happened fast. I didn’t know he didn’t catch it, to be quite honest,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We go over that rule. Teo knows the rule. I think right there he had just a little bit of a brain fart, appreciating that when it does hit the glove, you can tag there. But then he tagged, did it correctly, then saw he didn’t catch it, and he went back. That was the mistake.

“But he owned it. And after that, there’s nothing else you can do about it.”

Will Smith (on second) and Tommy Edman (on first base) each began to advance before also retreating to their original base. Muncy, meanwhile, ran through first base -- seemingly unsure if he had a hit or whether Frelick completed the catch. Recognizing the confusion on the basepaths, Contreras jogged up the third-base line and stepped on that base to force Smith out to end the inning.

“From home plate I had a pretty good view of it,” Contreras said. “I could tell pretty much right away that it hit off the wall. Right away, once the ball hits off the wall, you know that ball is playing live. Tremendous job by the guys there just doing what we needed to do to finish that play off.”

When did Smith realize Frelick did not actually catch the ball?

“When they [went to] third and called me out,” Smith said.

Roberts emerged from the visitors’ dugout to get clarification on what happened, and the umpiring crew convened to discuss the order of events and what everyone saw. But the initial call by Fairchild made it clear that they understood that Frelick had not made the catch. And instead of a hit, Muncy had hit into a bizarre 8-6-2 twin killing.

“I was thinking that’s probably the luckiest play I’ve ever seen,” Priester said. “From the pitching side, realistically that ball could be three runs, and probably should [have been] if we don’t have Gold Glover Sal Frelick out there. We play defense. It’s part of our identity.”

Hoye went back to Roberts, explained the breakdown of their ruling and asked what the Dodgers manager wanted to challenge. Just to be safe, the Dodgers officially challenged the force plays at both home and third base to ensure everything was correct. After reviewing all the relevant angles of the play, the rulings on the field were confirmed.

“I just wanted clarity on the whole situation,” Roberts said. “And then kind of making sure that they got a couple force outs, which they did. And ultimately, those guys and replay, the guys on the field, got it right. They nailed it.”

So instead of a grand slam to break a scoreless tie, the inning was over with the teams still deadlocked. If the ball had cleared the fence (and Frelick's glove), the Dodgers would have had a win probability of 88 percent. The Brewers instead found themselves with a 56 percent win probability.

“It’s very unusual,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “It’s tough for the baserunner to figure out what happened. But it’s one of those plays in baseball, we got very fortunate there. Great defense on our guys’ part for Sal and Contreras to be that heads up. Joey making the throw. That was big.”

Adding to the oddness of the play, the deep fly -- one with a 104 mph exit velocity that nearly left the ballpark -- went down as a fielder’s choice groundout due to two runners being forced out on the play.

It would have been a homer at Dodger Stadium, along with eight other ballparks, per Statcast. And the projected distance of 404 feet marked the second-longest for any ball in play resulting in a double play in Statcast history (since 2015).

“He made an incredible play in center field. As for what happened after that, I'm not really sure,” Muncy said. “I'm still kind of confused as to what all went down. … It's definitely the worst fielder's choice double play I've ever hit into in my life.”