Christian Yelich got a night off Thursday in St. Louis, but the Brewers’ message around him was anything but subtle: the slump is real, the effort is there, and the club still believes the production will come back.
Manager Pat Murphy spent part of the day making the case that Yelich’s season belongs in a broader conversation with other high-profile stars who have underwhelmed. Murphy had a list of names in mind - Manny Machado, Mookie Betts, Jose Altuve, Francisco Lindor, Alex Bregman, Cal Raleigh, Corey Seager and Trea Turner - and his point was clear. Yelich’s .707 OPS entering Thursday and 95 wRC+ still put him in a workable place overall, even if the last five weeks have dragged his OPS down 108 points.
“He’s grinding,” Murphy said. “But I tell you, no one cares more.
And this guy works. He cares, he really doesn’t want to disappoint the organization.
…
“ Yeli’s underlying numbers, some of them are very good. I think in order for us to achieve our goals, he’s got to play. We have to let him find his way through this a little bit.”
Murphy also made it plain that Yelich wasn’t being pushed down in the order. He said the veteran would stay atop the lineup.
“Where would you want me to hit him, seventh?” he said.
“No, it makes it worse. You can’t take the ‘C’ off his uniform, you know what I mean?
You don’t do that. You believe in him more.
You show him love. Give him direction and believe he’s on it.”
That backing came after Yelich delivered a reminder of what he can still do in Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Cardinals. He had three hits in Game 1, including the go-ahead RBI, and Murphy made sure everyone knew what kind of day it had been for the 34-year-old.
Yelich rode to Busch Stadium with the coaches at 7:30 a.m. CT on a day when the first pitches were scheduled for 1:15 p.m.
CT and 6:45 p.m. CT.
It was a long grind, and it came during a rough stretch. Yelich entered that afternoon in a 3-for-30 slump and hitting .202 since his last three-hit game on June 1. Murphy said Yelich was worn down by not producing at the level he expected of himself after last season.
“Write that down,” the manager told reporters that day, “because people have got to know how much this kid cares about the team and about the Brewers, and he feels awful that he's not producing at the rate of 30 homers and 100 RBIs like he did last year. He feels awful about it.
“He's working his tail off, and to come up today and do what he did, I’m just really proud of him. Three hard contacts [in Game 1], and the first thing he did after the game is he said, ‘Murph, don't rest me.
I want to play the second game.’ That's a sign of a guy that's hungry.”
The results after that were quieter. Yelich went 1-for-8 over the next two games, which led to Thursday’s breather.
Even so, the Brewers kept winning around him. Entering Thursday night, they were batting .209 with runners in scoring position, third-lowest in MLB, yet they had still won 12 of their last 17 games. Yelich said that kind of stretch is part of the season and that the club has found ways to keep moving.
“We find a way in ‘winning time’ in those last few innings to push something across,” Yelich said. “We manufacture something even though things aren’t going our way the last few weeks. You run into those stretches during a baseball season, and you have to find ways to survive them.”
For Yelich, the stretch has been difficult, but not something he plans to back away from.
“It’s been a tough month, for sure,” Yelich said. “You just have to keep going, keep working, keep trying to find a way. I’m trying to put in the work.”
Murphy, for his part, kept returning to the same theme: the numbers may be uneven, but the effort isn’t.
“He’s got a pretty nice baseball card,” Murphy said, “and I’m sure his bank account is better than all of ours times 10. But he’s so quiet and humble about what he does.
His humility is No. 1.
If anyone knew how hard he is on himself, it would hurt you.”
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