The 10 greatest moments in Lorenzo Cain's career with the Milwaukee Brewers

By now, Milwaukee Brewers fans have had a few days without Lorenzo Cain on the team, who was designated for assignment in the midst of the last year on his five-year contract signed in 2018. Though he struggled mightily in 2022, most fans appreciate the superb performance he delivered in 2018, which helped Milwaukee get within one game of the World Series.

His trail of home run thefts in 2019 also helped him win a Gold Glove, the first in a career that seems should have been littered with them. These are the top highlights of Cain's career in Milwaukee.

More: Lorenzo Cain's future is unclear, but he has reason to relish reaching a big milestone in 'the show'

Bonus: The mad dash (Oct. 23, 2015)

It wasn't with the Brewers, but we have to acknowledge what he did for another small-market franchise, the Kansas City Royals.

Cain's unforgettable mad dash to score all the way from first base on a long single by Eric Hosmer gave the Royals a 4-3 lead in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Cain had walked to lead off the inning, and it was a risky decision with nobody out, but he caught the Blue Jays off guard and slid home safely, prompting announcer Joe Buck to proclaim, "He can fly!"

The Royals won the game, 4-3, to clinch the series and went on to win the World Series.

Cain had been named ALCS MVP the year before, highlighted by a remarkable diving catch to rob (former Brewer) J.J. Hardy of the Baltimore Orioles along with a .533 batting average. In 2015, it was another former Brewer, Alcides Escobar, who took the honor of ALCS MVP. Cain and Escobar were part of a monumental 2011 trade that brought Zack Greinke to Milwaukee but also positioned the Royals to win the championship, with former Brewers skipper Ned Yost at the helm, no less.

10. So good it hurts (Sept. 21, 2021)

The fly ball belted by Willson Contreras of the Chicago Cubs wasn't going to leave the yard, but Cain nonetheless made a superb lunging grab against the wall at American Family Field in a game the Brewers eventually won. Cain had to leave three innings later, though, with an injury he suffered on the catch (he returned two games later). It's a microcosm of Cain's career, whose all-out play made him indispensable but also left him sometimes vulnerable to injury.

9. Don't need to see to believe (April 15, 2019)

Even with his eyes closed, Cain was capable of robbing hitters of home runs, just as he did to Matt Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals in the top of the second inning. Safe to say, the Cardinals were getting sick of Cain at Miller Park.

8. The King of Queens (April 26, 2019)

With the fullest of extensions, Cain took a home run away from New York Mets slugger Todd Frazier in the bottom of the second.

7. Scaling the Rockies (Sept. 28, 2019)

It might have been the highest degree of difficulty, and for a moment, it also had the highest stakes. The Brewers were leading in the seventh inning, 2-0, in a game Milwaukee needed to win to pull into a tie with St. Louis for the National League Central lead. Garrett Hampsen's blast would have tied the game with one out, but Cain stole it away.

The Brewers wound up losing the game in crushing fashion when Josh Hader yielded a game-tying homer in the ninth to Sam Hilliard with two outs, and Matt Albers surrendered a walk-off homer to Trevor Story in the 10th. The Brewers fell short of the division crown and eventually lost in the wild-card game.

6. Stay out of the pool (July 19, 2019)

Perhaps his most aesthetically fun theft came in Arizona to keep future Brewers teammate Eduardo Escobar in the park in the first inning.

5. No not today (Sept. 11, 2021)

Perhaps he didn't really need to slide (have we heard that before in a Brewers no-hitter?) to make the catch off the bat of Wisconsin native Owen Miller to end the eighth inning. But the slick grab marked the final out of the night for starter Corbin Burnes, who did not allow a hit to Cleveland. Josh Hader came in for a clean ninth, and the Brewers had their second no-hitter in club history.

4. Playoff thievery (Oct. 13, 2018)

David Freese has long been a thorn in the Brewers' side, and in Game 2 of the NLCS, it seemed like Freese (playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers) had delivered another big playoff moment. In the bottom of the first inning against Wade Miley, he sent one to the wall ... and Lorenzo Cain was waiting to take away what would have been a two-run homer. The Brewers eventually took a 3-0 lead in the game, though the Dodgers rallied for a 4-3 win that proved pivotal in the seven-game series.

3. The Great Escape (June 12, 2018)

Not all of Cain's excellence involved highlight-reel catches. Facing the Cubs in what became a tense battle between the teams for the NL Central, Cain orchestrated a magnificent escape on the base paths. Cain's grounder to the middle part of the infield caught Christian Yelich between second and third, but both runners wound up safe. Cain lingered close to second base and coaxed Chicago into thinking they had Yelich and Cain pinned in the same place, but Cain then bolted back to an unmanned first base, allowing Yelich to safely return to second untouched. Both runners scored on a Travis Shaw double one batter later in a 4-0 win.

On July 25, 2020, he did it again against the Cubs, this time with Cain stuck between second and third. With Cain's direction, Ben Gamel was able to return to first base unscathed, and Cain wound up safe back at second.

2. Game 163 (Oct. 1, 2018)

Cain's sharp single up the middle in the top of the eighth gave Milwaukee a 2-1 lead in "Game 163" against the Cubs in 2018, a one-game tiebreaker for the NL Central title at Wrigley Field. The Brewers would add another run, win the game, win the Central and eventually reach Game 7 of the NLCS.

1. Opening day magic (March 28, 2019)

You just can't start a season any better.

With two outs in the ninth inning of a one-run game and Josh Hader on the hill, Cardinals slugger José Martinez sent a ball to the wall that was on track to tie the score, but Cain made a leaping grab that opened the 2019 season with a bang. The moment was accentuated by Cain's son shouting "not today!" into the microphone at the postgame news conference, echoing a mantra that became Cain's calling card.

JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 10 unforgettable moments involving Lorenzo Cain in a Brewers uniform