Jesus Aguilar entered the season as the Milwaukee Brewers’ backup first baseman, essentially platooning with Eric Thames. But Thames suffered a torn UCL in his left thumb, which opened up more playing time for Aguilar. The 27-year-old (28 on June 30) has taken advantage of the opportunity, and then some.
Aguilar has 16 homers and a .305/.366/.609 slash line (his .975 OPS ranks seventh in MLB of hitters with at least 200 plate appearances). And two homers Aguilar hit on Friday night were particularly important for the Brewers.
St. Louis Cardinals rookie Jack Flaherty had a no-hitter going with one out in the seventh inning, when Aguilar cranked a homer to break up the no-no, *and* tie the game 1-1. Being able to pull this breaking ball for a dinger shows how strong Aguilar is:
The #Brewers home run leader for 2018 is @JAguilarMKE. #15 was big in more ways than 1! #ThisIsMyCrew pic.twitter.com/2Q0Pkm51f7
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) June 23, 2018
The score remained 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth, and Aguilar changed that with a walk-off opposite field homer against Bud Norris:
Bottom of the 9th. Tie game. What would Jesús do?
THIS: pic.twitter.com/gttXcgtWJa
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) June 23, 2018
Per @EliasSports : Jesus Aguilar became the first player in the Expansion Era (since 1961) to break up a no-hit bid of five-plus innings with a home run and hit a walk-off homer in the same game.
— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) June 23, 2018
Aguilar’s heroics give the Brewers a two-game lead over the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central, and put the Cardinals a distant 6.5 games back.