Christian

Yelich

The Brewers continue to mix in plenty of off days for their 34-year-old slugger to make sure that he stays healthy for the duration of the season. Jake Bauers will serve as the designated hitter in his place on Thursday while Andrew Vaughn draws a start at first base and will bat sixth against Cardinals’ right-hander Andre Pallante.

Yelich’s second double broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh for what proved to be the final run of the game. The Brewers also beat the Cardinals 4-3 last night. For Yelich, it’s his first game with three hits since May 26 and his first game with multiple extra-base hits since May 18. He entered the day in a 5-for-47 slump that had dropped his OPS to .700.

Yelich got the Brewers to within a run when he took Merrill Kelly deep for a two-run blast; his sixth of the season. The 34-year-old has his first homer of July after going deep just once in the previous month. Yelich doesn’t have the same type of pop he once did, but it seems unlikely that he won’t go through a power surge at some point this summer. He definitely needs one.

Even though he’s hitting .263/.344/.421 against southpaws, this makes three straight times that Yelich has sat in games in which the Brewers have faced a lefty. That .765 OPS is actually better than his .730 mark against righties. The Brewers also have Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell on the bench tonight. Gary Sánchez is DHing.

Yelich takes a seat with lefty Nick Lodolo taking the hill for Cincinnati. It’ll be William Contreras getting a turn at DH with Gary Sánchez drawing a rare start at catcher.

If you’re going to give Yelich a day off for rest, doing so against one of the best left-handers in baseball in Chris Sale makes a great deal of sense. Gary Sanchez will function as the Brewers’ designated hitter on Saturday and will bat cleanup.

If you’re going to get an occasional day off, doing so against Phillies’ left-hander Cristopher Sanchez isn’t a bad idea. Fellow left-handed hitters Christian Yelich, Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick are also on the pine for the Brewers in this one. Turang is having a strong season at the dish, slashing .261/.378/.457 with 10 homers, 42 RBI, 53 runs scored and 12 stolen bases through his first 296 plate appearances.

Kyle Freeland doesn’t really qualify as a tough left-hander that fantasy managers would want Yelich to sit against, but he’ll get a breather in this one as the Brewers continue to manage his workload in an effort to keep him healthy for the remainder of the season. William Contreras will serve as the team’s designated hitter in this one with Gary Sanchez working behind the plate and batting fifth for the Brewers.

After getting no-hit for seven innings by Dustin May, the Brewers picked up all three of their hits in a five-batter span in the eighth. Yelich made it a 1-1 game, and the Brewers went ahead afterwards on Masyn Winn’s error on a grounder from Jackson Chrourio. Yelich led off today for the second game in a row after batting cleanup in his first seven games back from the IL. He’s hitting .280/.337/.484 with 16 runs scored and 16 RBI through 25 games on the season.

Yelich homered off Matthew Liberatore in the first, going deep for the fourth time in 23 games this season. He later singled and should have scored in the eighth, but he botched the slide into home, with the cleat getting stuck in the ground in front of the plate. Yelich is batting .262/.326/.476 with 15 RBI through 23 games this season.