PITTSBURGH -- The first rule of fighting a team-wide hitting funk, Christian Yelich said when the Brewers were in the thick of one last week, is to stop talking so much about fighting a team-wide hitting funk. Rather than talk, he’d like to score some runs, which the Brewers have been doing with more regularity of late, rattling off four wins in the five games going into Friday’s matchup against Paul Skenes while scoring at least four runs every time. Before that, they lost four of the previous five games while getting shut out four times. The way Yelich sees it, the worst thing about those slumps is the way they can fuel themselves if you let them. “You start focusing all on the negative stuff and start being like, ‘Look at how bad it is,’” the Brewers star said last weekend at American Family Field. “You start focusing on it, making a big deal and everyone starts talking about it, then it becomes a thing. It doesn’t do you any good. Just flush it.”
That’s easier said than done for the Brewers’ less experienced players, who are plentiful on this roster. And for the fans in the stands, who rose for a standing ovation on Sunday when Yelich scored on Sal Frelick’s second-inning single against the Twins for the Brewers’ first run in 20 innings.
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It was the start of a better series of days for the Brewers' lineup, which got a boost from Yelich on Thursday night when he drove in four runs during his first multihomer game since 2023. Yelich acknowledged his poor start coming off last year’s back surgery -- he went into this series slashing .184/.276/.324 -- but believes he found something during the last homestand after putting “a lot of thought into it.” “I’ve been grinding with the hitting coaches. Connor [Dawson], ‘Buff’ [Al LeBoeuf] and ‘ET’ [Eric Theisen] have been putting in some time,” Yelich said. “It’s nice to see some of the stuff pay off. Hopefully we can get it rolling. “I’ve been talking it over, tweaking some things, playing around and seeing what sticks. It’s just nice to get in the flow again of playing baseball. You can’t do anything about the past. The beginning of the year, it is what it is. We’ve got a lot of games ahead of us and a lot of season left.” That was one of the messages Yelich imparted during the Brewers’ postgame meetings in the wake of losses in San Francisco on April 24 and in Cleveland on May 13. |
But meetings aren’t the answer, as Yelich sees it. “There’s nothing anybody says in the meeting that’s going to make you play better,” he said. “I think meetings are good for perspective and that kind of deal, give everybody perspective of the grand scheme of things. But when we have those meetings, it’s not like, ‘We need to play better.’ No [expletive]. Everybody knows that. “We need guys on base, really. Our team is predicated on guys getting on base. When guys get on base, then everything works. If you’re not getting on base, then it’s not going to be good for any team -- especially teams that don’t hit for a ton of power. That’s been our biggest problem. Not a ton of traffic. “Everyone’s trying. It’s not for a lack of effort. When it’s just not going our way, it's frustrating, it’s hard. It’s definitely not for a lack of effort. Everyone knows they have to be better, but it’s about getting it done.” |
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MLB MORNING LINEUP PODCAST |
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These four Brewers hitters have sent home run baseballs from PNC Park into the Allegheny River, according to records kept by the Pirates, but only one of them has done so twice while wearing a Milwaukee uniform. Who was he? A. Prince Fielder B. Travis Shaw C. Rowdy Tellez D. Christian Yelich |
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ASHBY’S ASSIGNMENT: BULLPEN WORK |
Left-hander Aaron Ashby acknowledges that his career hasn’t unfolded the way he expected when he signed a five-year, $20.5 million contract extension with the Brewers in July 2022 as his Major League career was just beginning. Back then, Ashby wanted to be a big league starter. He still wants to be a big league starter, but injuries have gotten in the way, first a left shoulder that derailed him for all of 2023 and most of ’24, and then a right oblique that sidelined him this spring until he was activated from the injured list on Friday. He’ll pitch out of the bullpen for now. “It feels like my career hasn't looked exactly how I thought it was going to look with all the injuries, but it's definitely great to be back here, great to be back around this team,” he said. “Hopefully I can provide some stability and support out of the ‘pen and just to the pitching staff in general.” Ashby never expected the oblique injury he suffered in a March 3 Cactus League start against the Reds to prevent him from pitching in the big leagues until late May. But maybe that was just his overoptimism getting in the way, he says now. If he pitches like he did last season for the Brewers after rehabbing the shoulder and regaining the zip on his fastball, he has a chance to be a bullpen weapon. From a callup in the last week of August through the end of the regular season, Ashby struck out 28 of the 76 hitters he faced, walked only three and allowed three earned runs in 19 2/3 innings with a fastball in the high 90s. “I've always said that I want to start, but maybe even more importantly, I just want to pitch in the big leagues,” Ashby said. “So wherever there's room for me to pitch here, that's the role I want to fulfill. I think that could look like different things throughout the season and I'll be ready for those. It's kind of just being ‘out-getters.’ Going out there and getting as many outs as you can until they tell you to stop getting outs.” |
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B. Travis Shaw hit a pair of home runs into the Allegheny River while playing for the Brewers, the first on July 18, 2017, and the second on Sept. 23, 2018. That makes him one of the three visiting players to hit multiple home runs into the drink, with the Reds’ Derek Dietrich and the Braves’ Matt Olson. |
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