Yelich cracks 38th, 39th HRs in four-hit game

PITTSBURGH -- For the past week, the Brewers waited for their offense to break through. They waited in their series in Oakland and lost twice. Then, they waited as they were swept by the Cubs.

When the Crew's pitching depth took another hit with Zach Davies on the injured list, they entered Monday’s game hungrier than ever. And they found the cathartic day they needed with a multihomer effort by their leader, Christian Yelich, and a pair of lopsided innings to earn a 9-7 win, snapping a four-game skid.

• Box score

Yelich began the Brewers’ scoring with his 38th blast of the season, an opposite-field solo homer off Pirates starter Dario Agrazal in his first at-bat. As Mike Trout and Cody Bellinger threatened his MLB home run lead with rockets of their own, Yelich capped the night on the other end of the box score with a ninth-inning bomb over the right-field stands and into the Allegheny River.

“It wasn’t on purpose that that happened,” Yelich said of his two-homer day. “You’re trying to do well every game. It just happened to work out that way tonight. If I could hit two homers whenever I wanted, that would be pretty sweet.”

The projected 425 feet the second dinger carried with a 34-degree launch angle gave the reigning National League MVP Award winner time to watch with admiration, followed by chants of “MVP” from loyal visitors. It marked the sixth career multihomer game for Yelich, four of which have come this season, and he ended his night with four hits.

“Look, when you go 4-for-5 with two homers, I don’t care who you are, it’s an enormous night,” manager Craig Counsell said. “So yeah, it was a great night. And he has the ability to put us on his back offensively. He’s done it before, he did it for a pretty long stretch last year and tonight was a night he did it again.”

Between those bookends, Milwaukee notched a pair of hit-heavy innings. The first was powered by Mike Moustakas, who had a home run robbed by Bryan Reynolds in the second inning. He cracked a no-doubter in the fourth inning that nearly cleared the stands in right field -- a projected 459-foot blast that was the longest of Moustakas’ career since Statcast began tracking in 2015.

“I just want it to get over the fence,” Moustakas said. “I don’t care how far they go.”

Then, it was a game of small ball. Three consecutive singles followed Moustakas’ homer, setting up an RBI groundout by starter Jordan Lyles, who worked five innings, and a two-run single by rookie Trent Grisham, who batted leadoff for the second straight game. The Brewers rattled off three singles and a reached on error to score three insurance runs in the eighth.

“If you’re going to score runs, that’s what you’ve got to do,” Yelich said. “You can’t just solely rely on the homers. You have to be able to string some together and manufacture runs in other ways than just leaving the ballpark.”

In the seven days leading up to Monday’s victory, the Brewers had recorded a .271 on-base percentage, the lowest mark in the National League during a 1-6 stretch that included the beginning to this nine-game road stretch. Milwaukee didn’t score more than four runs in a game during that span.

The Brewers reached that run mark in a single inning, and they reached base safely 16 times on Monday, including 13 hits -- the team’s most in a game since July 16. Four Milwaukee players put up a multhit game, though Grisham led the way in RBIs with three from the leadoff spot, his second straight game there.

The beginning of a new win streak didn’t come without a little turbulence. Freddy Peralta allowed three runs with two outs in the eighth, then Josh Hader gave up a pair of two-out extra-base hits to bring Josh Bell up as the potential tying run.

But for once in the past week, it was thanks to the offense that the Brewers had enough gas in the tank. Though it was a big sigh of relief, it won’t necessarily mean a turn in the tide for the offense until they prove the ability to sustain it. That takes both staying locked in to the moment and not pressing for more than one can accomplish.

“I think when you get caught up looking weeks, months in the future or saying, 'we need to win this many games in a row to get on a roll,' that’s when you get in trouble,” Yelich said. “You just need to worry about the present. You can’t do anything about the future right now.”