ANAHEIM, Calif.—Sal Frelick robbed Taylor Ward of a game-tying home run with a leaping catch in center field for the final out of the Milwaukee Brewers’ 6–3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night.
The Angels staged a three-run rally in the ninth inning and then got two more runners on base, bringing up the potential tying run and Trevor Megill into the game as the Brewers’ third reliever of the inning.
Ward drove a 384-foot fly to center, but Frelick confidently ran back and made a one-handed grab on the warning track, with his glove above the barrier.
“I was thinking ‘Tie score,’” Milwaukee Manager Pat Murphy said. “[But] if Sal is near it, it goes in his glove 99.9 percent of the time.”
The 5-foot-9 Frelick stretched his arm just above the yellow line representing the top of the outfield fence and held onto the ball while his torso hit the wall.
“It was hit really high, so it was coming down,” Frelick said. “It’s just a little easier versus the ones that are hit really hard or aren’t coming down as much. I was able to see it and jump, and it just went right in.”
Christian Yelich hit his 200th career homer and rookie Tobias Myers pitched scoreless, four-hit ball into the seventh inning for the Brewers, who have won three of their past four games. Jackson Chourio drove in three runs, including a two-run double that turned into a Little League home run on the Angels’ third error of the night in the fourth inning.
Los Angeles avoided its third shutout loss of the season when Logan O’Hoppe doubled in the ninth and scored on two wild pitches by Elieser Hernández. Jo Adell and Nolan Schanuel then drove in runs, and the Angels got two more runners on base before Megill, a native of nearby Huntington Beach, barely secured his 14th save.
“I thought it was a tie ballgame, but [Frelick] went up there and got it off the wall,” Angels Manager Ron Washington said. “We didn’t quit. We just couldn’t do [anything] with the starter at the beginning of the game. But then we took care of their bullpen when it came in, but it wasn’t enough.”
Myers (4–2) was sharp in his third straight victory, matching his career high with six strikeouts against two walks while limiting Los Angeles to one extra-base hit.
Griffin Canning (2–8) yielded five earned runs on eight hits in his fourth consecutive loss for the Angels, who had won eight of their previous 13 games.
Yelich connected in the first inning, sending his milestone solo shot to right for his seventh homer of the season. The 2018 National League most valuable player—a Southern California native—hadn’t homered in 17 games since May 29, and he has only two homers in the past six weeks since returning from a 20-game absence with a lower-back strain.
“It was cool to finally get it,” Yelich said. “You kind of know eventually it’s going to happen, but you never know really when. Obviously, it took me a while to do it, so pretty cool—a lot cooler in a win. It looked like it was going to be one of those smooth-sailing nights, not an easy win, but an uneventful one. It turned out to be everything but that.”
Frelick doubled in the second and scored on the first of Canning’s two wild pitches. Milwaukee attempted a double steal in the third, but Brandon Drury threw out Brice Turang at the plate.
Chourio capped a two-out rally in the fourth with his double down the right-field line—and he motored all the way around to score when Adell allowed the ball to get away.
