Brewers 4, Cubs 3 (10): Hortonville's Caleb Boushley stars in 'better than a dream' MLB debut
When Caleb Boushley was 17-years-old, he played hooky from his job at the YMCA in Greenville, Wisconsin, hopped in the car with three of his friends and headed south on Interstate 41 for 100 miles.
Boushley, on that night in September 2011, watched live as Ryan Braun slugged a home run to give the Milwaukee Brewers a walk-off win over the Colorado Rockies in what Boushley deems the most memorable of many games he attended at Miller Park growing up.
Friday night, Boushley had a seat at the same ballpark for another walk-off victory in extra innings.
This time, though, he didn't have to skip work to witness it.
He was the winning pitcher.
Boushley, the 29-year-old native of Hortonville, made a Major League Baseball debut that they won't be forgotten in the Fox Valley — or Milwaukee — anytime soon.
Sure, Carlos Santana lined the walk-off double in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Brewers a 4-3 win over the Chicago Cubs — all but a death knell in their division rival's playoff hopes — but the night belonged to the right arm of Boushley.
Caleb Boushley enters MLB debut facing 'incredibly tough situation'
Boushley became the 12th Wisconsin-born player to appear in a game for the Brewers when manager Craig Counsell summoned him from the bullpen in the bottom of the eighth. It wasn't just mop-up duty, either.
With Milwaukee having clinched the division already, Counsell had no intent of using any of his top high-leverage bullpen arms. So, with two outs in the eighth and a one-run lead over a Cubs team desperately clinging onto hopes of playing into October, Boushley trotted out of the bullpen.
"You think about when you’re calling to get him up, the situation you’re putting him in, because you want it to go well for him," Counsell said. "And we put him in an incredibly tough situation and a great atmosphere."
As Boushley ran toward the mound, directly in his line of sight were 400-plus friends and family situated above the home dugout, standing and cheering.
"It’s just really cool to see in one spot all the people that you’ve come across throughout your career, whether it be tee-ball all the way up through where I am now," Boushley said. "It’s cool. It makes me very thankful for the people I’ve come across in my life."
Boushley completed his warmup tosses. He toed the rubber, took a deep breath and peered in toward Patrick Wisdom in the right-handed batter's box.
After getting a count of two balls and two strikes, Boushley unleashed a 74 mph curveball that carried with it to the plate the conviction of a long, arduous journey to this point.
Wisdom's knees buckled. Strike three.
Boushley was playing on the club baseball team at UW-Fox Valley
Ten years ago, Boushley was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley, a two-year college, playing on the club baseball team. He had received some interest from various NCAA Division III programs around the state while an all-conference pitcher at Hortonville High School but opted to attend the local school because of its affordability while figuring out what he wanted to do for a career.
Later, after transferring to UW-La Crosse, Boushley took up accounting.
Major-league pitcher sounds a little more enticing, doesn't it?
At La Crosse, Boushley transformed himself into a legitimate draft prospect. He performed well for the Eau Claire Express in the Northwoods League, the summer wood-bat collegiate league in the upper Midwest, and was a D3 All-American as a senior at La Crosse.
San Diego Padres drafted Boushley in 2016 in 31st round
The Padres took him in the 31st round in 2016, then the Brewers selected him in the minor-league phase of the Rule 5 draft prior to the 2022 season. Boushley spent the last two years on the cusp of the majors with Class AAA Nashville. He led the International League in innings pitched over the past two seasons, working as what manager Craig Counsell called "a good soldier" for the organization, taking the ball every five days and eating innings. Boushley pitched well, too. He just never got the call.
Until earlier this week.
After striking out Wisdom, Boushley was ambushed with high-fives and celebrations in the Brewers dugout, but eventually found his seat near the end of the padded bench. He focused in on his breathing. There would be no way to keep his heart rate entirely in check, but he had to lock back in mentally.
He knew the ninth inning, with a one-run lead, would be his.
That inning started off poorly, too. Boushley hung the first pitch he threw in the ninth to Ian Happ, who promptly crushed it 417 feet out to right-center for a game-tying solo homer.
Back to the breathing.
"I feel like I was able to keep a pretty singular focus on each pitch and not think of the end result of the at-bat," Boushley said. "Hits will happen. Sometimes those hits are homers, but it’s about focusing on the next pitch."
Part of the reason the Brewers called up Boushley, who required the team to go through the process of adding him to the 40-man roster and dropping another player, was they knew what kind of heartbeat they would be getting on the mound. Results at this time of the year don't matter nearly as much for the Brewers — as shown by no Devin Williams, Abner Uribe, Joel Payamps or Hoby Milner in the game on Friday — but they wanted someone who would remain steady.
Boushley retired the next three Cubs batters in the middle of the order: Cody Bellinger, Seiya Suzuki and Dansby Swanson. He struck out Suzuki looking on a 3-2 sinker at the top of the zone, then got Swanson whiffing at a 76-mph curveball beautifully located on the outside corner.
Steady.
"That’s what we knew what we were going to get with Caleb," Counsell said. "That’s what he’s delivered. With his baseball journey, he delivers that consistently."
But Boushley wasn't done. The Brewers failed to score in the bottom of the ninth and, sure enough, Boushley went back out for the 10th. He was going to pitch as long as the contest continued.
"It felt like very time I ran out, they got a little bit louder," Boushley said of the fans. "Just really cool."
With the automatic runner starting the inning at second base, Boushley opened up the 10th by getting Jeimer Candelario to fly out to left. He walked Christopher Morel, uncorking a wild pitch for ball four that allowed the go-ahead runner to move up to third.
Boushley recovered to strike out Yan Gomes swinging on a tantalizing sweeper that fell off the table for the second out. Milwaukee walked Mike Tauchman intentionally to load the bases for Wisdom despite the Cubs infielder having an OPS of .845 against right-handers this year.
A large contingent of Cubs fans revved up the noise. Equally loud was the Hortonville contingent holding and waving Boushley face cutouts along the first-base line. You could see Boushley try and slow the moment down on the mound.
Fastball down. Strike one.
Fastball low and away. Nearly pulled to the backstop.
Fastball low and away. Fouled back. Strike two.
Fastball up the ladder. Swing and a miss. Strike three.
Colin Rea, Carlos Santana also shine in dramatic victory
At that point, the Brewers offense had no choice but to make a winner of Boushley. Santana, who had already driven in two runs on the night with a two-run triple, his first since 2019, wasted no time.
On the third pitch he saw from Cubs reliever Jose Cuas leading off the 10th, Santana sliced a down-and-away sinker along the left field line. It stayed fair, allowing Blake Perkins to saunter home from second base for a 4-3 Brewers victory.
The Brewers mobbed Santana near the fringe of the outfield grass but quickly turned their sights to the journeyman rookie whose big-league record had just improved to 1-0, done in the ballpark where he grew up watching games.
Boushley's teammates all remained in the dugout, situated along the top step and hanging on the railing, as he gave a postgame television interview.
"He handled it as well as anybody could handle it," Counsell said. "After the pitch in the ninth, you could just feel the dugout pulling for him so, so hard and appreciating what he was doing and how difficult it was what he was doing.
"That was a cool moment. We've obviously got big goals here, but the game sometimes is about experiencing moments. About moments like that. That was great to be a part of."
It was a night for the democracy of baseball to shine.
Before Boushley threw his 2⅓ innings and got the win, Colin Rea, an underestimated journeyman in his own right, threw five scoreless innings. It was his 22nd start of the year with a team he wasn't expecting to play much of a role for after inking a minor-league deal in the winter.
"The baseball journey is different for every player," Counsell said. "These guys have not had it easy, whether it be injuries or overlooked. The season that Colin delivered was a very, very good season. You’re happy for both."
Boushley, for the first time since taking the mound a half-hour earlier, allowed himself to gaze up at his supporters as he stopped for his post-game interview near the dugout.
He locked eyes with the people that helped fuel him, both on Friday evening and in every step of his life.
From club ball UW-Fox Valley, to pitching anonymously in Division-III to six seasons toiling away in the minor leagues.
This was the pinnacle.
"You try to play out how it’s going to go in your head, but when you’re in the moment, you just take it a pitch at a time," Boushley said. "But, yeah, it’s better than a dream."
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers 4, Cubs 3 (10): Hortonville Caleb Boushley stars in MLB debut
