'He sets the tone': Yelich stars again with game-winning 3B

MIAMI -- Prior to the Brewers’ 7-5 win over the Marlins on Tuesday night at loanDepot park, Christian Yelich described his club’s strengths: speed and athleticism.

Well, for the second consecutive night, Yelich showed off his own speed and his impressive baseball IQ, delivering the game-winning hit barely 24 hours after he became the first Brewer with a straight steal of home since 2003.

“When you have more guys on your team that want to win, care about the right stuff and are willing to run through a wall for each other than the other guys," Yelich said pregame, “over the course of six months, you're gonna be alright.”

The victors of another back-and-forth contest, the Brewers finished the night more than “alright,” and it was all thanks to Yelich.

The Brewers’ left fielder stepped to the plate in the top of the eighth inning with Milwaukee trailing by one run. The Marlins had mounted a three-run rally just two innings prior to snag the lead from the Brewers, who had entered the sixth with a 4-2 lead.

There were runners on the corners and two outs, after a double from Jake Bauers and a walk from William Contreras bookended a groundout and a pop out.

“I kind of knew that I was probably gonna be the one that ended up facing him when William was up there,” Yelich said postgame. “I figured they're probably gonna pitch around him. I don't know if they were or not, but that was kind of -- I was preparing the whole time from when [Brice Turang] was up there on forward … just kind of feeling the at-bat out and making some adjustments throughout it.”

Actually, the Marlins had thought about intentionally walking Contreras, who already had two hits and had reached on a fielder’s choice.

“A part of me was debating whether or not to put Contreras on,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “... I was [like], ‘OK -- not that I want to see Christian Yelich at the plate with the game on the line ever, but left-on-left was probably a better matchup than the Contreras matchup.’ He just beat us tonight.”

Yelich took the first pitch he saw from reliever A.J. Puk, a sweeper high and away, for a ball. He followed that up by fouling off a sinker up and in. But then, Puk made a mistake, leaving an almost identical sinker just over the inside edge of the plate.

So, Yelich crushed it. (Quite literally -- the ball left his bat at 111 mph, per Statcast.)

The ball flew over the right side of second base, then rolled almost all the way to the wall in center field. Yelich could have stayed on second base, settling for a safe double. But, nah, that’s no fun. So Yelich, seeing the ball wasn’t quite back to the infield yet, took off for third. The ball hit him as he dove, safe, into the bag.

In actuality, there was a much less selfish reason for Yelich’s move.

“I really wanted the throw to go to third so William would score for sure,” Yelich said. “That was really my main reason for going to third, was, 'Hopefully they throw it there and not the plate,' basically. And they ended up doing that. I think it hit my shoe or something. Ended up working out for us.”

No one around the Brewers was surprised that it was Yelich who came through clutch. Not Willy Adames, who hit an RBI double to drive Yelich home in the next at-bat. And not Brewers manager Pat Murphy.

“I've seen him do a lot of things, but it never [fails to] amaze me what he does,” Murphy said. “What he did last night and the play he made -- coming off 30 days of being out and [now] doing what he's done since he's been back, quietly. He would tell you he's not even swinging the bat great, but he comes up big in every situation. He sets the tone.”

Said Adames, who went 2-for-5 after a rough stretch of balls not dropping for hits: “It's always great to see Yeli doing something special for the team. I think the team feeds off of that, you know, like, we always expect big things from him and he came up clutch today.”