ST. LOUIS — Milwaukee Brewers fans — and, heck, most of the players, too — held their collective breaths in the bottom of the eighth inning at Busch Stadium on Sept. 20.
Catcher William Contreras, one inning after taking a swing by a St. Louis Cardinals hitter to the area of his left hand, exited the game without much of a fight after manager Pat Murphy and the training staff emerged from the dugout.
Less than one hour later, following a thrilling 3-2 win that dropped the Brewers’ magic number to win the National League Central Division to one, Contreras made a pitstop to check in with the skipper.
“He was in my office already wanting to play tomorrow,” Murphy said.
While Contreras is almost certainly not going to catch the series finale Sept. 21 with a chance to pop champagne, he and the Brewers seem to have avoided potential disaster as X-rays were negative.
“He’s a bulldog, man,” said Brewers right-hander Chad Patrick. “…He’s the heart and soul. He runs the show behind there.”
In the seventh inning, Contreras was called for catcher’s interference on a swing by Cardinals designated hitter Ivan Herrera. He remained in the game after a visit from the training staff and a couple of minutes of trying to shake off the pain.
Contreras, who’s also been dealing with a fractured finger on the same hand most of the season, caught two pitches in the eighth from Abner Uribe before taking himself out of the game.
Murphy expressed some frustration toward the play being deemed intereference despite what he perceived to be a late swing from Herrera. The Cardinals designated hitter began his swing, which wound up being a check-swing, around as the ball was nearing the plate.
“The rule’s gotta change,” Murphy said. “MLB is really good about understanding what rules have come out that we really need to change. That one’s going to be tough in terms of how it’s enforced but we got to protect the catcher.
“If there’s not a valid attempt to hit the ball and the attempt is so late that it makes contact with the catcher’s glove…but it hits the catcher’s glove after the guy catches it, that’s not a violation.”
This story was updated with new information.