Brewers have an error party, committing five in two tragic innings

Tragic is really the only way to describe what happened to the Milwaukee Brewers in the first two innings of Wednesday night’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Two players, right fielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis and shortstop Jonathan Villar, committed a combined five errors in just two frames.

It started innocently enough. With one out in the first, Diamondbacks second baseman Phil Gosselin hit a chopper to short that Villar picked up quickly. It should have been an easy out, and it would have been if Villar hadn’t had trouble getting the ball out of his glove. Then, with Gosselin on first, shortstop Jean Segura hit another easy out to Villar. Villar grabbed it and then totally threw it away, past second base and into right field.

This is when Nieuwenhuis joined the error cascade. He attempted to corral the ball that Segura had thrown away and toss it back to anywhere there was a baserunner (by now there were two guys zipping around the bases), but he had trouble picking up the ball near the right field line. He eventually got a handle on it and threw home, trying to get Gosselin at the plate. But the throw was too late, and Gosselin scored all the way from first thanks to those two fielding errors.

The starter, poor Jimmy Nelson, never really had a chance. After the three errors in the first inning (and a single to score Segura), Nelson allowed a three-run homer to Yasmany Tomas. The score was 5-0 before he could get the second out.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis after committing his second of three errors during the Brewers - Diamondbacks game on July 27, 2016.

But the “fun” wasn’t over for Kirk Nieuwenhuis. (It’s actually the opposite of fun.) Archie Bradley, who was starting for the Diamondbacks, was up first, and he hit the ball past first base and down the right field line. Nieuwenhuis was on the spot again, and when he tried to scoop the ball with his glove it bounced off the front edge and kicked away from him. It was a single to begin with, but the error let Bradley advance to second.

And there’s more! Still in the second, Segura hit one to shallow right field. Nieuwenhuis charged at it, put out his glove, and the ball clanked off of it and bounced away. On that error, Bradley scored from second and Segura replaced him there.

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What happened to Villar and Nieuwenhuis doesn’t mean they’re bad fielders. Racking up that many errors in such a short time most likely means an extreme case of the yips. It’s a snowball effect — committing one error makes you feel less sure of what you’re doing, leading you to commit another one, which makes you feel even worse than before, which leads you to make another mistake, and… you get the picture.

According to the Brewers broadcast, before Wednesday night’s error-fest, the last time Mikwaukee had a five-error game was on September 27, 2007 against the San Diego Padres. And this five-error game made a special kind of 2016 history.

The Brewers committed 5 errors through 2 innings.

That's the most errors by one team in a game this season!

Kirk Nieuwenhuis: 3 errors

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) July 28, 2016