ANOTHER Christian Yelich Cycle! Brewers 8, Reds 0

WP: Wade Miley (5-2); LP: Anthony DeSclafani (7-6); Save: Brandon Woodruff (1); Homeruns: Cin - none, Mil - Domingo Santana (5), Christian Yelich (31)

Check out that Yelich guy in the Box Score!

Christian Yelich is good at baseball. Just going out on a limb here. His second cycle in three weeks (both against the Reds) keyed the Milwaukee Brewers (86-65) 8-0 win over visiting Cincinnati (64-87). The first was on August 29th, on his six for six night, so that’s a 10 for 10 conglomerate with two doubles, two triples, and two homers. Oh my.

Brewers’ starting pitcher Wade Miley used the Pete Vuckovich approach tonight. There were all kinds of base runners in his five innings of work, but none of them scored (duh). Miley retired the Reds in order in the first and fifth (both against the top three hitters in the line-up), but Cincy had two runners on in the second, third, and fourth. Wade worked out of it each time, though, and that was enough for his fifth win of the season.

All together, Brewer pitchers recorded 17 groundballs for outs (18 outs, with a DP), but Josh Hader didn’t contribute at all. He worked the sixth and struck out the side...again. Fun fact: Hader’s last 13 outs have been by strikeout. Oh my.

Brandon Woodruff got the final three innings for his first major league save. He gave up three hits in the ninth, but a double play helped keep the Reds off the scoreboard.

Offensively, the Crew broke through in the bottom of the third against Red’s starter Anthony DeSclafani. Curtis Granderson drew a one-out walk (shocker) and Yelich doubled to put runners on second and third. Lorenzo Cain lofted a shallow fly to right and Granny tried to score...and did, on a weak throw from Scott Schebler.

The Brewers had a two out base runner (Orlando Arcia) on an error by third baseman Eugenio Suarez in the bottom of the fourth, but Lando began an interesting night on the basepaths by trying to steal with the pitcher up. He beat the throw but couldn’t stay on the base, ending the inning. With a 1-0 lead, that was a head-scratcher.

But what it did was allow Craig Counsell to pinch hit for Miley leading off the bottom of the fifth. Domingo Santana was the choice, and he ripped his second pinch homer in consecutive games over the bullpen in left for a 2-0 lead.

Granderson followed with a base hit, and Yeli took care of the next leg of his cycle with a homer just fair down the right field line. 4-0 Brewers.

The Brewers finished their scoring off with a four run sixth. Mike Moustakas led off the inning with a double, and was driven in by a drive into left center by Arcia. Arcia was thrown out at second, except that he kicked the ball out of Scooter Gennett’s glove for a double. He then was thrown out going to third on a ball that barely got away from Reds’ catcher Curt Casali, thrown out by so much that he didn’t even slide. And Suarez dropped the ball as he tagged Lando. It was called a wild pitch, but probably should have been an error on Suarez. Eugenio wasn’t done...Jonathan Schoop pulled a grounder with Arcia going on contact...and the ball went under Suarez’ glove for another error, his second (or third) of the game. Granderson walked (again) and both Schoop and Granny came around on Yelich’s triple, putting Milwaukee up 8-0 and finishing off his cycle, and the scoring for the evening.

The Cards look to be finishing off the Braves (up 11-6 in the ninth) while the Cubs are tied at zero with the D’Backs in the fifth. If you’re curious, you can look up the standings yourself. I know that I will.

Game two of the three game set will have Chase Anderson (9-7, 3.85) going for Milwaukee against Reds righty and slugger Michael Lorenzen (3-1, 3.21). Lorenzen has four homers as a relief pitcher (and pinch hitter) this season, with three of them against the Brewers. This will be his first starting assignment of the season.

Game Notes:

• In his last five games against the Reds, Yelich is 16-23 (.696) with three doubles, two triples, and five homers (slugging 1.652). He has scored six and driven in fifteen. If he stays hot enough to win the NL MVP, he should perhaps send a thank you note to Cincy...although that might be bad form. (How has he only scored six times???)
• Yeli’s 4-4 day combined with Scooter Gennett’s 1-3 ballgame leaves both batters at .318, tied for the NL batting average lead.
• AKBrewfan asked in the game thread prior to the game, and the Brewers delivered:

I, for one, would appreciate a nice, stress-free, blowout win.

Relentlessly sane.

Posted by AKBrewfan on Sep 17, 2018 | 6:27 PM

• Granderson had another fine game from the lead-off slot; two walks, a base hit, and three runs scored.
• After the last two against the Pirates it was nice to see some offense...three doubles, a triple, and two homers worth.
• I may be just an alarmist, but it looked like Lorenzo Cain was uncomfortable at the plate in his third at bat when he lined out to first. He took a hard swing on the first pitch and fouled it off; he was stretching and twisting after that. Then, Keon Broxton pinch hit for him in the bottom of the sixth. It went unnoticed because the Brewers were up 8-0, and Counsell didn’t mention it in the post game, AND Lo Cain kinda looks uncomfortable as a default setting, but let’s look at the line-up tomorrow.
• I was fully planning on using a pic of Domingo Santana, as I’m really happy for Sunday’s success since coming back to the big squad.