Joey Wiemer’s strong stretch of baseball continued Saturday when he accomplished a feat that no Milwaukee Brewers player had done before — register two outfield assists in the same inning.
That happened in the second frame against Oakland, starting with Ramón Laureano’s ill-advised attempt to stretch a single, and Wiemer threw to Andruw Monasterio for the out at second base. The second was the more impressive of the two, when Wiemer perfectly played a double by Aledmys Díaz off the wall and fired a seed to Willy Adames, who delivered a strong throw home to get Jonah Bride and keep the game scoreless.
The Brewers went on to lose the game, 2-1, but Wiemer found himself in the Milwaukee record books. He’s the first Brewers outfielder to register two assists in the same game at all since Lorenzo Cain in 2018.
“I was talking to Owen (Miller) before the game yesterday, swear to God, and I said, ‘Dude I haven’t had a throw in like a month and a half,'” Wiemer said Sunday. “I haven’t had an opportunity to throw from center in so long, and then I got two in the second inning of the game, so that was cool.”
He now has five outfield assists on the year and has been a revelation in center field, where he has become an indispensable regular. Wiemer ranked in the 77thth percentile in arm strength in the majors and in the 97th percentile in outs above average entering Saturday with six – a figure that led the Brewers and was 14th overall in baseball (third among all outfielders).
It’s all the more impressive considering Wiemer has already played more games in center at the big-league level (52) than his entire minor-league career (50), where he was primarily stashed in right field.
“It obviously would be a surprise,” Wiemer said when asked if the minor-league version of Wiemer was told he’d be a big-league center fielder. “I’ve always known I can play center and I did for a little bit in the Cape (Cod League) year, a little bit in my freshman summer, but I haven’t gotten to play it in a while. We’ve had incredibly talented centerfielders coming up in the minors; Sal (Frelick), G (Garrett Mitchell), Joe (Gray Jr.), I’ve always kind of just been in right.”
Oh yeah. there’s also the offence. Wiemer has reached safely in 11 straight games heading into Sunday and has batted .378 during that stretch with three homers. That includes a walk-off single Tuesday against Baltimore. So what’s been the best part of the ride?
“The pure emotion, feeling like everything is starting to pay off, what you’ve worked for your whole life; that was the initial (reaction) and now it’s just taking every day for what it’s worth,” Wiemer said. “I’m going to show up and play hard because you never know when your last day is on a baseball field, so just kind of trying to take every day, not for granted.”
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Joey Wiemer’s seamless move to CF now includes Brewers franchise first