MILWAUKEE -- Where did Christian Yelich’s power go?

Wherever it was, he found it on Saturday afternoon.

After hitting one home run in his previous 145 plate appearances and none in his previous 69, the frustrated Brewers slugger unloaded for a pair of monster homers in Saturday's 9-6 win over the Nationals at American Family Field, putting the exclamation point on Milwaukee’s tie-breaking, five-run eighth inning with a 454-foot grand slam.

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After a six-RBI day, Yelich quipped, “It was nice to contribute for once."

“Obviously it hasn't been the greatest year performance-wise for myself, but the story's not written yet,” he added. “We have a long way to go. There's a lot of baseball yet to be played, not just in the regular season, but hopefully the postseason.

“The season's far from over.”

Yelich also hit a 414-foot home run in the first inning and singled home a run amid a three-run rally in the fifth in the most productive game by far in what has been a second straight maddening season. He routinely produced big games like this in 2018, when he won the National League MVP Award, and in ‘19, when he finished runner-up and surpassed 40 home runs with a multihomer night at Washington. That night, Aug. 17, 2019, was his last multihomer game before Saturday.

Things just have not been the same since then. Yelich missed the final weeks of the 2019 season after fracturing his right kneecap on a foul ball, signed a club-record-setting contract extension, then was among the numerous stars who struggled in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He looked right again during Spring Training in 2021, only to be derailed by an early-season back injury that cost him about six weeks.

Yelich eventually returned, but his power did not. He entered Saturday with six home runs in 322 plate appearances, and none since July 18.

Then came Saturday’s breakout. 

“He’s had a lot of outside pressure, inside pressure. People just expecting him to be Superman all the time,” said Brewers second baseman Kolten Wong, who put his own stamp on the game with a daring scamper home on an infield foul popout in the fifth. “This game is too tough to expect that out of somebody. He has that in him. We all know that. We all believe he has it in him. It’s just a matter of time before it comes out. If it does, watch out for the Brewers. We’ll be doing some really good things in the playoffs.”

The Brewers’ go-ahead inning was gift-wrapped by Washington. With the game tied at 4 and Javy Guerra pitching for the Nationals, Luis Urías reached on catcher’s interference to lead off the bottom of the eighth. Jace Peterson singled and Jackie Bradley Jr. was hit by a pitch in the back. Willy Adames popped out, but then Guerra hit Kolten Wong in the back to force in the go-ahead run.

Yelich was up next, and he worked the count full and battled for nine pitches before sending a fastball to the right-center-field concourse to help keep the Crew ahead for good.

“I thought it was a product of our at-bats,” said Brewers manager Craig Counsell of the runup to Yelich’s slam. “The catcher's interference is obviously an odd one, but the rest of it was just, you take what the guy gives you. If he's not going to give you a strike, you take the walk, or if you extend the at-bat, then we had some hit-by-pitches. They were because we extended the at-bats and made the guy throw more pitches.

“It was certainly an odd rally up to the Yelich home run. But I thought it was just like I said, a product of making a pitcher keep throwing.”

For Yelich, there have been signs lately that a performance like this was coming. 

He hit a respectable .282 (11-for-39) with a trio of doubles on the Brewers’ long road trip and had an eight-game hitting streak snapped in Friday’s homestand opener when he grounded out as a pinch-hitter. In his last start before Saturday, he went 1-for-4 against the Cardinals with four balls in play averaging 104.7 mph, according to Statcast, including fly balls to the outfield at 109.9 mph and 105.6 mph.

“There’s things trending in the right direction,” Brewers hitting coach Andy Haines said that day. “He came out of Spring Training ready, man. For me, there’s always multiple things, but in Spring Training he got going there at the end and was ready, and I was excited. 

“If you look back in hindsight, it was the choppiness of it. “It was here [at Busch Stadium]. He rounded third base and came up with [a stiff] back, and for whatever reason when he came back it was there for a couple of days, then a couple of steps back. It’s been choppy. To perform offensively, you can’t be choppy. You have to get hot and have a hot streak. And he hasn’t had that.” 

The Brewers sure hope this is it.

“Is it coming?” Haines said. “You know me, I’m going to say yeah, it’s coming.”