Sal Frelick made the play of the game for the Brewers – and then caught flack for it

PHOENIX – Pat Murphy is an equal-opportunity smack-talker, but nobody on the Milwaukee Brewers catches more strays from the manager than Sal Frelick. 

The list of go-to ribs from Murphy is so extensive he may use one of his notebook pages full of chicken-scratch notes just to keep track of them all.

There’s the one about how Frelick should go back to college as a fallback for when baseball doesn’t work out. The one about how he has the ugliest swings and embellishes when he fouls one off his foot. And, of course, the one about he can’t stop making unnecessary dives for balls. That one might be Murphy’s favorite.

So when Frelick made the catch for the final out July 5 in a 3-2 victory against the Arizona Diamondbacks, took and leaped into the wall in foul territory, you knew what was coming next. 

“Sal, always trying to make SportsCenter,” Murphy said. 

The catch was impressive, even if Frelick made the degree of difficulty even higher. 

With Corbin Carroll in an 0-2 hole against Brewers closer Trevor Megill and the tying run on first, Milwaukee shifted Frelick toward the right-center gap thinking Carroll was less likely to be early and pull a ball. Yet that’s exactly what he did, sending a high fly toward the line in right.

Murphy thought off the bat it might be gone because of the bat speed with which Carroll unfurled, but Frelick had it tracked the whole way. 

“I just had to run far,” Frelick said. “It wasn’t the hardest catch.” 

SAL GOES FLYING INTO THE WALL TO SEAL THE GAME pic.twitter.com/VaPi9Y8LeS

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 5, 2026

With about eight feet to spare in front of the wall, Frelick launched off his right foot and went slamming right into the wall, hip directly to the padding. 

And, for that, Frelick caught plenty of flack. 

“I knew he caught the baseball but the guy went flying into the well when I’m pretty sure he could’ve just camped under it and caught it,” said first baseman Jake Bauers. “Murph gives him [crap] about that a lot, diving when he doesn’t have to dive, but that one I might be on Murph’s side.

“Sal’s my guy. I [freaking] love him. But I’m going to take Murph’s side on that one.” 

Frelick also had Megill – and most of the entire ballpark, probably  – fooled with his stoic reaction to the catch and not showing the umpire the ball.

“[Heck] no,” said Megill when asked if he thought Frelick caught it. “I knew there was a good chance but I didn’t want to celebrate too much before I knew. My hands were in the air, then they went down and back up again.

“I think he deked everybody in the building. Me and [Daivd Hamilton] looked at each other and shrugged. Fantastic catch. That’s Sal.” 

After taking heat from Murphy and Bauers – as well as Brice Turang, who was in the vicinity when the play was made – it was only fair to give Frelick an opportunity at a rebuttal. 

“My rebuttal for Jake Bauers and Brice Turang is probably that they don’t know what it’s like to run that fast,” Frelick said. “Especially Jake Bauers. So he thinks that you can just stop. That’s all I got.” 

Frelick then went on to sing the praises of Megill and the bullpen, which covered five innings July 5 and 18 ⅔ in Milwaukee’s three-game series win. 

He then was given a chance to give flowers for Bauers, whose go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh inning was the difference in the 3-2 win.

“Absolutely no flowers for Jake Bauers,” he said. “I think the only reason he probably hit that homer is because I pinch-ran and went to first and he saw me out there, so he wanted to get back to the dugout so we could hug.” 

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sal Frelick made the play of the game for the Brewers – and then caught flack for it