MILWAUKEE -- Devin Williams buckled Fernando Tatis Jr.’s knees with an “Airbender” in the same week Tatis was named the National League Player of the Week. By the weekend, Williams was back to pitching high-leverage relief for the Brewers.

These were very good signs for Williams as he completes his comeback from a shoulder injury, and for a Brewers team that has been carried so far by its pitching.

“Everything has been coming together,” Williams said Monday before the Brewers began a homestand against the Marlins and Dodgers. “The fastball command, the changeup command has been there. I guess if I had to pick a specific moment it was the Tatis at-bat. I was putting my changeup right where I wanted to in that at-bat. I’m just trying to build off that.”

Williams did some special things last season, from posting scoreless outings in his final 20 appearances, to holding opponents to 2-for-62 with 41 strikeouts in at-bats that ended with a changeup so nasty it required its own name, to becoming the third Brewers player -- and first pitcher -- to win his league’s Rookie of The Year award. But if you want one at-bat that shows what Williams is about when he is at his best, see that showdown with Tatis, representing the tying run with two outs in the seventh inning on Wednesday in San Diego.

Williams struck him out on three straight changeups. One on the inside corner that made Tatis flinch. Another off the plate away that Tatis swung at and missed by a mile. Then another off the plate inside for a swinging strike three.

The rest of Tatis' week against the Brewers and Dodgers looked like this: A .385/.467/1.000 slash line with nine runs scored, 10 hits, a double, five home runs, seven RBIs, four walks and four stolen bases over seven games played against the likes of Brandon Woodruff and Trevor Bauer.

“Obviously, if my pitches are playing against a guy who’s doing that against the rest of the league, some top pitchers,” Williams said, “that’s a good sign.”

The Brewers have slowly built Williams to this point. His stellar 2020 season ended in disappointment when he had to miss the National League Wild Card Series against the Dodgers with a right shoulder injury. Williams didn’t need surgery but the team brought him along very cautiously in Spring Training, pitching him only four times in Cactus League games. When Williams scuffled in his initial outings of the regular season -- he allowed four earned runs in his first 3 2/3 innings after one earned run in 27 innings last year -- the Brewers briefly backed him out of the set-up role in front of closer Josh Hader.

But by the end of the team’s 5-1 road trip to San Diego and Chicago, Williams was back. He pitched the eighth inning with a 4-2 lead on Saturday and surrendered a solo home run to Jason Heyward but struck out a pair and cleared the inning on 12 pitches without surrendering anything else, then pitched the eighth again on Sunday with a 1-0 lead and struck out one in another 12-pitch inning.

They were his first back-to-back outings this year, including Spring Training and the regular season.

“That’s something we’ve been building towards,” Williams said.

Last call
• With utility man Daniel Robertson unavailable on Monday as a precaution after being struck on the helmet by a pitch in the ninth inning of Sunday’s win over the Cubs, the Brewers purchased Pablo Reyes’ contract from the alternate training site roster and optioned outfielder Corey Ray. Reyes provides more positional versatility, and he was put right to work as the starting third baseman in Monday's contest as the Brewers faced a left-handed starter for the first time all season in the Marlins’ Trevor Rogers.

• The seven-day concussion list is available to teams again this season, but as of Monday the Brewers didn’t believe that step was required with Robertson because of the improvement he’d made from Sunday, manager Craig Counsell said.

• The Brewers remained in a holding pattern with outfielders Lorenzo Cain (right quad) and Christian Yelich (back) as of Monday afternoon. Cain was on the field again for a workout but Yelich was not. Counsell said the Brewers would introduce Yelich to as much activity as his back would tolerate, adding, “There's no answer to give you right now on this. When he gets back on the field, I think that's the day we'll know we're getting somewhere. And we're not there yet. … I don't think we're far from that, necessarily, but we're not there today."

• Here’s something you may not have known about Adrian Houser, who is scheduled to start for the Brewers on Tuesday: He is a citizen of Cherokee Nation and learned some of the language while growing up in Oklahoma.

“It comes from my mom’s side of the family,” Houser said. “I don’t speak it as well as I probably should have, or know a lot about some history and stuff like that, but I definitely. … keep my roots there. My grandmas and grandpas are all Cherokee, so that’s cool. When I was younger, I used to go to all the Cherokee holiday celebrations and stuff like that in Tahlequah [Okla.]. … I’m proud to represent them and, hopefully, I’m a good example and can keep shining for the Cherokee Nation.”