Willy Adames Is the Key for the Surging Milwaukee Brewers

The strangest and loneliest season in major league history ended last October on a decision by Willy Adames, the new shortstop of the Milwaukee Brewers, not to swing. Adames, then with the Tampa Bay Rays, had struggled all month. In Game 6 of the World Series, with two out in the ninth inning, he took a called third strike against Julio Urias of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Season over.

“I couldn’t swing,” Adames said with a laugh on Tuesday. “I was swinging before that, and I couldn’t hit the ball anyway, so might as well just take it. He was super nasty.”

By watching Urias’s 97-mile-an-hour fastball clip the inside corner, Adames ensured a place in highlight history. But only 11,437 fans were there to see it in person because of the coronavirus pandemic, which kept fans from the ballparks except for limited crowds at two postseason series in Arlington, Texas.

Now, with stands packed again, Adames can feel what he was missing.

“The other day when we were playing the Cubs, there were 30,000-some people in the stands,” he said. “I felt like I was in the playoffs on a Monday night during the regular season. Imagine being in the World Series with the stadium packed.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/sports/baseball/willy-adames-milwaukee-brewers.html