'A great player': Yelich's 2 HRs pave way for walk-off win

MILWAUKEE -- Saturday was “Star Wars Night” at American Family Field, and the Brewers pulled out the stops for a thematic celebration of the iconic franchise.

Whether they knew Christian Yelich would seemingly try to hit a ball to a galaxy far, far away, it was a nice touch.

Yelich crushed a pair of homers to spark the Brewers’ offense, and Joey Wiemer hit a walk-off sac fly to seal a 4-3 win over the Royals.

It’s the ninth multihomer game of Yelich’s career and first since Aug. 21, 2021, against the Nationals.

"Yelich is a great player,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “He’s an MVP. So it’s not surprising. It’s disappointing, for sure. But he’s done that to a lot of people.”

After striking out against Zack Greinke to lead off the first inning, Yelich came up in the third with a runner on and two outs. Greinke, the savvy 20-year veteran with a deep pitch arsenal, fell behind 2-0 with a curveball and changeup out of the strike zone.

Greinke came back the next pitch and left an 86 mph cutter over the heart of the plate -- which Yelich crushed 427 feet to dead center field for a game-tying homer. The blast, which Statcast registered at a 110 mph exit velocity, deflected off the center-field scoreboard, under a photoshopped picture of Yelich as Obi-Wan Kenobi. It fittingly was labeled “Yeli-Wan Kenobi.”

“Just kind of trying to swing it at the right ones and do it the right way,” Yelich said. “Zack's obviously a really good pitcher who mixes it up really, really well. You’re never really in a hitter’s count with him, and he's kind of always trying to miss your barrel and keep you off balance. When you get a pitch to do some damage with, you’ve got to try not to miss it.”

Yelich’s second homer came in the sixth, when he drove an opposite-field blast 375 feet off Josh Taylor to even things at 3.

“We know he has that power,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said of Yelich. “He can hit the ball extremely far. But the opposite field one, I don't care what kind of hitter you are, you’ve got to hit balls hard to get them [out to the] opposite field. So that's a blast.”

It’s no secret how important Yelich is to the Brewers’ success. Saturday continued a strong month of May for the 2018 National League MVP. Including his 2-for-4 performance against the Royals, Yelich is slashing .333/.391/.571 with three home runs and 10 RBIs in his past 11 games.

When asked how he’s been feeling at the plate recently, Yelich said he’s trying to stay consistent and string together good at-bats. He acknowledged putting the ball in the air is a recipe for doing damage, but also noted you must have the right mentality in the batter’s box.

“You can't hit a grounder over the fence,” Yelich said. “So, if you're going to do damage, it’s got to go in the air. But you’ve got to do it the right way. … You're not going up to the plate thinking about damage or home runs or anything like that. If you hit the ball well, you hit it hard and you do it the right way, that's how it turns out. I've been really just focused on stringing good at-bats together, making adjustments and trying to do the best [I] can.”

Along with Yelich’s big night, the Brewers’ bullpen picked up starter Adrian Houser, who exited after allowing three runs in four-plus innings, by tossing five scoreless frames.

Brian Anderson reached on a single to start the ninth, and an Owen Miller double moved him to third base. Wiemer needed just two pitches to end the game with a deep fly ball to center field.

“It was an interesting at-bat for him,” Counsell said of Wiemer. “I was curious to see it, really, because it's a big moment and the crowd’s into the game. But I thought, really, the swing was like ‘put the ball in play.’ He appears to take a huge swing every time, but that was a swing where he just put the ball in play. Credit to him for doing that.”

Wiemer’s swing ended the game, and the two by Yelich kept the Brewers in the game to set up the walk-off.

“That's our guy,” Wiemer said of Yelich. “It’s so fun to watch him be him, and just [watch Yelich] hit a ball 110 [mph] that hits the roof and then [he] hits the scoreboard as well. … It's awesome to play with him and watch him every day.”