MILWAUKEE — They’ll say this is just another series in July, but Willy Adames’ reaction said otherwise.
Adames flexed and let out a celebratory yell after applying the tag at second base on a stolen base attempt in the sixth inning of the Brewers’ 11-6 win over the Reds at Great American Ball Park on Friday, one of the slew of small moments in what began as a tit-for-tat ballgame between the National League Central’s top two teams, and ended as a rout, with Milwaukee outscoring Cincinnati by a 10-2 margin over the final five innings.
The Brewers’ 25th come-from-behind victory moved them five games ahead of the second-place Reds with All-Stars Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes lined up to start for Milwaukee the next two days.
“I think everybody knows that they’re trying to win against us because they are the team that is right behind us. And obviously we’re trying to win to push them a little farther into second place,” Adames said. “Those games are going to be intense. You saw all the four games at home [when the Reds took three of four before the break], all of the games were tight, all of the games were intense. We were competing. Tonight, it was the same thing.”
Friday marked eight weeks since the trade that brought him to Milwaukee, and Adames looked right at home in his new uniform. He hit a two-run home run in the fifth inning — his 10th in 200 plate appearances with Milwaukee — to spark a comeback from a 4-1 deficit, then delivered a two-run double in the Brewers’ game-breaking, five-run eighth. Adames finished a triple shy of the cycle with four RBIs.
The Brewers acquired Adames on May 21 from the Rays to provide stability at shortstop, and he has done much more than that since joining his new team the next day in Cincinnati. Milwaukee won that day, then kept on winning. The Brewers are 33-16 since Adames joined them, the best mark in MLB over that span, and Adames is slashing .299/.380/.559. He leads the Brewers in hits, doubles, average, slugging percentage, OPS, extra-base hits and total bases during his tenure.
“Like we’ve said, he’s electric, he’s a straight ball of energy,” said Brewers starter Adrian Houser, who was out of the game by the fifth inning but saw the team win his seventh straight start. “He comes to the field with a great attitude every day. He wants to win. That’s the guy, the type of person we needed playing shortstop for us.”
Adames “drove the bus” on Friday, as manager Craig Counsell likes to say, but it was another one of the team efforts that have fueled the Brewers’ hot streak while Christian Yelich searches for his power stroke. Kolten Wong tallied three hits in his return from the injured list, including a go-ahead single in the Brewers’ three-run sixth inning. Adames, Avisaíl García and Luis Urías all homered. Wong, Adames, Urías and Jackie Bradley Jr. all had multiple hits and scored multiple runs.
“It would have been big to get the first win here after that huge series win,” Reds starter Tyler Mahle said. “I didn’t put pressure on myself to keep that going. I just tried to go out, have a good start and get the second half off to a good start. It didn’t happen for me.”
The Brewers tied the Reds for the most come-from-behind victories in the NL.
“We did a good job getting on base for [Adames] tonight,” Counsell said. “He’s getting huge hits. The most noticeable thing is he’s getting big hits. They come at big times, they change the complexion of games and he’s doing it often. He’s been incredible since we acquired him.
“There’s no question about it, he changed our team. Our team changed when he got here.”
Adames has been asked many times what’s made the difference. He was a .197 hitter in Tampa Bay. The ballparks are one notable change; Adames always struggled to see the ball at Tropicana Field and had far better splits in road games. But the biggest change, he said, has been something else.
“I feel like I’m never going to get tired of saying: It’s been the confidence that I feel,” Adames said. “For me it’s been the most important thing, just going to the plate telling myself that I’m going to get a hit, or just hit the barrel of the [bat]. … I’ve been blessed to come to this team and get hot at the right time and to help the team to get better.”
