10 out of 10! Sutersault gets Biles' approval

Brewers lefty Suter recovers from mid-pitch tumble in style

MILWAUKEE -- Brent Suter dazzled for three innings in an emergency start for the Brewers on Saturday at Miller Park.

And he stuck the dismount. Even thanked his grandmother afterward.

The high-energy swingman caught a cleat on the mound and took a mid-delivery tumble with Cubs center fielder Ian Happ at the plate in the third inning of a scoreless game. Suter popped to his feet while his teammates stood and cheered, took a few deep breaths, then struck out Happ to finish the frame.

Score the somersault a 10.0 for Suter, who even caught the attention of four-time Olympic gold medal gymnast Simone Biles. She retweeted a side-by-side clip of his tumble and one of her floor routines, and Suter was starstruck.

"Totally worth the embarrassment of wiping out on the mound when the best gymnast of all time retweets it!" he tweeted.

Suter was called into duty when the Brewers’ scheduled starter, Brett Anderson, couldn’t shake hip tightness on Saturday afternoon. It was Suter’s second start this season, and it was a beauty: Three innings, one hit, no walks and six strikeouts against the Cubs, who ultimately prevailed with a 4-2 victory.

“I honestly think I have taken a tumble before like that, but I can’t exactly remember when,” Suter said. “It wasn’t in the big leagues; maybe the Minor Leagues. My cleat slipped on the rubber and it took off on me.

“I’ve got to give my grandma credit for sticking that landing. She helped me with tumbling. Those tumbling classes paid off tonight.”

He was kidding about tumbling classes, but Suter said his grandmother did, in fact, help him perfect somersaults as a kid.

Friday was different. Friday was a Major League game against one of the teams the Brewers are chasing in the National League Central, and it came at the front end of a stretch of eight games in six days against the Cubs and Cardinals. Suter knew that even while his teammates were howling with laughter, he had to compose himself and keep pitching.

“It happened, you’ve got to walk it off and breathe,” he said. “You know it’s probably going to be all over the internet. To make a pitch after that was a big thing.”

So he stepped behind the mound and took a breath.

“I couldn’t go back on the rubber right away,” Suter said. “I was still almost laughing. I felt myself blushing out there, which doesn’t happen very often. I had to make sure it was a deliberate pause; a big game, hold my composure and get back in lock-in mode.”

That’s what he did, retiring Happ and then passing the ball to Brewers relievers Freddy Peralta, Eric Yardley, Alex Claudio and Devin Williams. The Brewers had a 2-0 lead in the ninth before it got away from Josh Hader.

Suter did his part against a Chicago team that has had trouble with the left-hander dating to last season. In 12 1/3 innings against the Cubs since coming back from Tommy John surgery, Suter has allowed two runs with no walks and 17 strikeouts. The two runs scored on a Kyle Schwarber homer.

“I definitely was happy,” Suter said. “Certainly, the changeup was a good pitch for me tonight. That’s the best it has felt all year. I’ve got to try to stay with that feeling going forward. If I can get that feeling against both righties and lefties, it can really be a game-changer for me. It looks like all that throwing with Devin has been paying off, so I’ve got to keep that going.”

Adam McCalvy has covered the Brewers for MLB.com since 2001. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and like him on Facebook.