Legging it out: William Contreras causes some consternation with his baserunning

William Contreras showed flashes of his 2024 Silver Slugger campaign in helping the Milwaukee Brewers take two of three games from the Chicago Cubs in the teams' just-completed series at American Family Field.

The sixth two-homer game of his career and his first since last April provided most of the offense in a 10-3 loss on Wednesday afternoon, July 30 that left the Brewers to settle for two out of three against their rivals and a one-game lead in the Central Division standings.

But afterward, the catcher was explaining his thinking on a play that ultimately had little to do with the outcome of the game yet nevertheless caught the attention of fans who watched it unfold.

In what was an 8-3 game at that point, Contreras led off the sixth inning with a grounder to third baseman Matt Shaw, who bobbled the ball slightly.

Assuming a routine out, Contreras jogged out of the box.

BOX SCORE: Cubs 10, Brewers 3

Then, Shaw made things more interesting by making an off-target throw over to first base that dragged Michael Busch completely off the bag. Contreras didn't turn on the jets until his final few steps, with Busch extending so far to his right that his foot came completely off and he then had to backtrack and touch the base with his toes.

It ended up being a bang-bang play with first-base umpire Sean Barber calling Contreras out.

Manager Pat Murphy challenged, with Barber's call ultimately standing.

After the game, in the midst of an answer about the day Contreras had at the plate, Murphy addressed his catcher's tendency for not running out all ground balls with the vigor of, say, a Sal Frelick or Caleb Durbin.

"I'm OK with William not running hard to first base every time on certain balls," he said. "Because if you hit a missile right at the shortstop and he catches it, there's no chance even if the kid falls off the bag a little bit. Unless there's an overthrow, you're not going to be safe.

"But the ones that are slow hit, you've got to go. That's not acceptable."

William Contreras speaks about his day, including him not going all out to first base on that grounder in the sixth inning: pic.twitter.com/Ap6P6DVYjD

— Todd Rosiak (@Todd_Rosiak) July 30, 2025

Murphy was then asked if the final portion of his comments were in reference to the play in the sixth.

"It was in between, to the third baseman's left. He kind of stumbled," he said. "You've got to go hard. That can't happen. That's not how we play. I'm not making a big deal out of it, because I don't want William to sprint down there every time with as much wear and tear on his body.

"But you know the ones as a player that you sprint on and the ones you don't."

In Contreras's view, it was what transpired immediately leading into the play that helped set the stage. As it turned out, he needed to shed his catcher's gear immediately after the Cubs batted around and turned a 5-3 game into an 8-3 blowout.

"I don't know if that's too important to me there," Contreras said. "Coming off a really long inning there on defense, an inning that no one here really knows what it's like to go through, I hit the ground ball and took off.

"Bad throw, and it happened."

Pulling back the lens, Contreras became the first Brewers player since Keston Hiura on Aug. 21, 2022 to homer twice in the same game against the Cubs and went 6 for 12 with also a double and three runs batted in for the series.

His first-inning homer off Shota Imanaga registered at 105.1 mph off the bat, tied the game and was his first since June 14. Contreras now has his average up to .250, he's two more homers away from a fourth consecutive season with double digits in that category and has also upped his OPS to .711.

Far from what everyone expected coming into the season, but getting better considering he's far from 100% while continuing to play through a fractured finger.

"I haven't made any adjustments or anything. I've just continued to do what I always do and found a little bit more luck this series," he said. "So, for the rest of the season, just have to keep doing the same thing and hope to find the same results.

"(The finger) is the same. It's bothering me the same as it was earlier in the season, I think if anything I've just learned to play with it and tolerate it a little bit more. There's no excuses to be made; I just have to keep going out there and give my all to the team."

To that end, Contreras was asked if the Brewers have indicated to him that his role might be changing in any way following the acquisition of catcher Danny Jansen from the Tampa Bay Rays on July 28.

"It's going to be the same role that I've always had," Contreras said. "Jansen's a tremendous catcher and I welcomed him as soon as he got in the door.

"But it's going to be the same for me."

How to sum up the series?

Was winning the series a success for the Brewers?

Or did Milwaukee miss out on a golden opportunity for what could have been a crushing sweep for Chicago?

"I'm happy because we won the series," said starter Freddy Peralta, who ultimately set the stage for the loss with a season-low four innings. He allowed five hits, five runs and four walks with only three strikeouts in 85 pitches, with a four-run third ultimately proving to be his undoing.

"My goal for today was to give my best to sweep them," he continued. "But it happens. I'm going to take it that way, get better, do some work and be better the next time.

"They've been playing well. We've been playing pretty good. We have another big series of five games against them. We're almost in August and hitters make adjustments, pitchers make adjustments and we just have to keep competing and try to keep playing the way that we've been playing."

Peralta (12-5) took the loss, marking the first time that's happened to him since June 3 at Cincinnati, although he did move past Teddy Higuera and into third place in franchise annals with 1,083 strikeouts.

Only Yovani Gallardo (1,226) and Ben Sheets (1,206) have more.

"Freddy always gives you a chance," Murphy said. "He did some good things. Walking people, that's not part of his gig. That's not the best Freddy, when he walks people. We could have left him in; he had innings left.

"But he's had a big workload. He's been great for us. Didn't go his way today. Wasn't his best self."

Later, toward the end of his summary, Murphy steered the conversation back to how the game played out.

"Just disappointed," he said. At 64-44, his Brewers still lead the 63-45 Cubs by a game as well as sport the best record in the major leagues.

"It's still with me a little bit. It's disappointing. We bounce back with a homer in the first, looks like we're going to have another one of those games...it just wasn't our normal.

"But, credit to the Cubs. They've got a nice club. A really, really nice club. We're hanging in there. Now it's time to figure out how to continue to get better."

Jackson Chourio's status still TBD

To no one's surprise, outfielder Jackson Chourio was out of the lineup the day after suffering what the club described as a right hamstring spasm while legging out a triple.

Where he stands moving forward remains to be seen with the Brewers having an off day Thursday – which just so happens to also be trade deadline day – before hitting the road again with a three-game series at Washington.

"We took him for imaging and all that kind of stuff," Murphy said. "We'll have some information in the next 24 hours, I'm sure."

With Chourio sidelined, the Brewers utilized Blake Perkins in center field and probably will continue to do so if he is forced to miss any more time.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: William Contreras causes some consternation with his baserunning