Jesús Aguilar’s most important plate appearance of the season came on a Saturday night back in April. The Milwaukee Brewers first baseman has had plenty to enjoy since then, certainly: 35 home runs, an appearance in the All-Star Game, a year-long coming out party for his career. But before all of that, there was this, a sharp inflection point to set his season’s course.
It was Milwaukee’s 17th game of the year, a home contest against the hapless Miami Marlins. Aguilar wasn’t in the lineup, but there was nothing unusual about that. He wasn’t the starting first baseman; he was the second man on the depth chart, just as he’d been when he joined the club in 2017.