MILWAUKEE — Luis Lara has made spectacular defense look almost routine since arriving in the Majors.
This one required a little extra celebration.
With the Brewers already in complete control Friday night at American Family Field, Eugenio Suárez sent a towering fly ball toward the right-center-field wall in the fifth inning that appeared destined to be a home run. Lara tracked it all the way back, reached the wall alongside center fielder Garrett Mitchell and leaped, extending his glove beyond the fence to take the homer away.
Lara landed with the baseball secured in his glove, then immediately stretched both arms wide as if to ask everyone watching: “Did you see that?”
Apparently not everyone did, because the delay in Lara taking the ball out of his glove had the umpires signaling home run and Suárez rounding the bases. Lara eventually pulled the ball out and threw it back into the infield, at which point the correct call was made.
Mitchell had perhaps the best view of anyone. Both outfielders were converging on the ball near the wall before Lara called him off and went airborne.
“I looked up, and he’s just right over my head,” Mitchell said. “As soon as he called it, I was like, he’s gonna catch it.”
Mitchell has learned not to be too surprised.
“It was just incredible,” he said. “But at this point, it’s like you’re surprised, but then you’re not surprised at the same time. It’s like, there he goes again. Air Lara.”
Lara had already made one impressive catch earlier Friday, sliding into foul territory to retire Tyler Stephenson in the second inning.
The home run robbery was another highlight-reel addition to what has quickly become an impressive defensive résumé for Lara since his callup, and it came on a night when just about everything was going Milwaukee’s way. The Brewers led the Reds 9-0 at the time of Lara’s robbery and went on to a 20-0 victory, clinching a playoff spot for the eighth time in nine years.
Manager Pat Murphy called it one of Lara’s best plays since reaching the Majors, saying, “That has to be one or two, right? The kid has been spectacular in the outfield for us.”
Even pitcher Dustin May, who benefited from the robbery, needed a moment to be sure Lara had actually kept the ball in the park.
“I was like 60-40,” May said. “The way that he reacted, I was like, I hope he’s not reacting like that if he didn’t catch it.”
Then came his review of the play itself.
“Fantastic play,” May said. “Fantastic play.”