Sunday marked the two-year anniversary of the Milwaukee Brewers acquiring shortstop Willy Adames in a trade from the Tampa Bay Rays.
He celebrated that by crushing an opposite-field home run against his former team and then punctuating it by copying the home run pose of his former teammate — and current Rays outfielder — Randy Arozarena.
What makes it all even better? Adames told Arozarena before the game that if he hit a home run he was going to strike the pose. He followed through on that promise.
After Adames crossed home plate, he did Arozarena’s arm cross and looked toward his former teammate with a smile. Then after returning to the Brewers dugout and putting on the team’s celebratory chessehead hat, he did the pose again and pointed out to Arozarena in left field with another smile.
Arozarena said after a game through an interpreter that he does not mind Adames borrowing his pose, just that he would prefer he use it against other teams instead of the Rays.
“I mean, it’s not necessarily good because we ended up losing the game,” Arozarena said via interpreter Manny Navarro. “He should do it when he hits a home run against another team.”
“He had said earlier today that he was going to hit a home run and then he was going to do the pose and I didn’t believe him,” Arozarena said. “But obviously he hit a home run and just posed.”
The Brewers won Sunday’s game by a 6-4 margin and salvaged at least one game from the series, avoiding a sweep.
The 27-year-old Adames has turned into a strong starter at shortstop for the Brewers since the trade. The Brewers acquired Adames, along with Trevor Richards, in exchange for J.P. Feyereisen and Drew Rasmussen. Rasmussen has become a key part of the Rays starting pitching rotation.
