Yelich has been packing punch
If you’re looking for some big secret behind Christian Yelich’s recent power surge, you’re going to be disappointed.
“I’ve changed absolutely nothing,” Yelich said Sunday morning. “Everything’s stayed the same.”
Yelich entered the Milwaukee Brewers’ series finale with the Pittsburgh Pirates having homered in three straight games for the second time in his career. He’d also homered in five of seven and was sitting on 23 for the season, a new career high.
His shot to left-center off Jameson Taillon that accounted for the Brewers’ lone run in Saturday’s 9-1 loss caught the attention of the Pirates right-hander.
"Even my hangers, my curveball doesn't usually get hit like that,” Taillon said. “That just tells me he's in a good spot, to be able to sit back on a curveball and hit to left-center. A bad pitch on me, but usually that's a double or an out. “He's a great hitter."
Yelich's homer total ranked him third on the team behind Jesús Aguilar’s 29 and Travis Shaw’s 25, with his .910 OPS second. His 54 extra-base hits were tops.
Yelich’s home run stroke has come into focus in the second half, with 12 in 33 games compared to 11 over 82 in the first half.
Not surprisingly, Yelich has gone deep more often at homer-friendly Miller Park. He has 14 homers and a .996 OPS there, a welcome change from the cavernous Marlins Park that he played in for the first five years of his major-league career with Miami.
His previous career high was 21 homers, accomplished in 2016 when he also drove in 98 runs.
“There’s some balls that are probably doubles off the wall or caught at Marlins Park that get out here, so that could be a factor,” Yelich said. “You’ve still got to hit them here. But at Marlins Park, you really, really had to hit it.”
Looking deeper into the numbers, not much has changed for Yelich, as he suggested. He’s been a slightly more aggressive hitter while making a little less contact overall compared to last year, and pitchers are throwing him fastballs more than any season since 2015.
But all of it had added up to a .311 average, 67 runs batted in and a .910 OPS entering Sunday, and Yelich ranked in the top 10 in the National League in several other offensive categories.
Yelich's 11-game hitting streak ended in Sunday's 7-4 victory, but he did draw a walk to extend his on-base streak to 13 games.
Returning to form: So far, so good for Joakim Soria.
The right-hander made his second appearance Sunday since being reinstated from the disabled list, and he needed to record five outs in what should have been a 1-2-3 eighth.
His outing began with Starling Marte reaching on a throwing error by Jonathan Schoop, then after recording the first out Soria balked Marte to second. After Gregory Polanco popped out, Francisco Cervelli reached on a wild throw by Orlando Arcia.
Soria then needed some reflexes to close out the inning, as he barely got his glove up in time to deflect a rocket up the middle by Corey Dickerson before recovering and making the throw to first to end the frame.
Having the veteran Soria in the mix at the back end of the bullpen along with Josh Hader and Jeremy Jeffress should help the Brewers plenty down the stretch. He's allowed just one earned run in nine appearances since coming to Milwaukee on July 26.
"He’s pitched well since he’s been here. He’s had very good outings," manager Craig Counsell said. "Both outings since the DL he’s thrown the ball really well. It’s almost like it freshened him up a little bit.
"He’s going to be huge down there and we’re going to need big outs from him, and it’s nice coming off the injury that he’s right back in there and doing big things for us."