MILWAUKEE — Mike Cameron‘s 17 years in the big leagues taught him that sometimes it takes just the smallest spark to fuel a turnaround.
And that’s just what he witnessed in the sixth inning of Sunday’s 4-0 Brewers win over the Cubs at American Family Field, when his son, Daz Cameron, was right in the middle of the four-run rally that denied Chicago what would have been its first series sweep in Milwaukee in 10 years.
The one little thing came courtesy of Cubs reliever Julian Merryweather, whose first offering after starter Shota Imanaga had to leave the game with an injury was a run-scoring wild pitch. The Brewers turned that mistake into a big, two-out rally that continued with Cameron’s RBI single and Caleb Durbin’s two-run double. The outburst made a winner of Freddy Peralta after six scoreless innings, snapping a three-game losing streak in which the Brewers had mustered only two runs.
In the top of the sixth, as Peralta completed an 89-pitch gem, Cameron talked about the experience on the Brewers’ TV broadcast.
“I try to be low key when I go to places to see him play, but this is a little more special because I actually played hare,” said Cameron, a veteran leader for the 2008 Brewers team that snapped the franchise’s 26-year postseason drought. “He got a chance to run around on the field when he was here at 12 years old, so it’s definitely a unique experience. It’s always gratifying to see things like this happen.”
“The pitching would kill me right now,” Cameron said. “I don’t miss the sliders. I don’t miss any of the anxiety, the nerves that it brings. I’m kind of over that now. But I get a chance to see it now in a different perspective, and a different set of nerves, wishing that my kid will have an opportunity to play well. I know how tough it is to play at the Major League level.”
