The Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday beat the Cardinals 2-1 to sweep a 3-game series and clinch a postseason berth for the first time since 2011, their fifth postseason berth in the last 50 years.
The Brewers clinching is obviously a big story, but something else to watch is what happened to Christian Yelich in the game.
Yelich was walked all five times he came to the plate and ended up scoring both of Milwaukee’s runs. The MVP candidate did not receive any intentional walks and saw at least five pitches in each at-bat, but it was clear the Cardinals were going to pitch him closely and not let him beat them.
You have to wonder whether other teams will consider pitching him as carefully as St. Louis did on Wednesday.
Yelich has been scorching hot lately. He drove in eight runs in the Brewers’ first two wins over the Cardinals. Since the All-Star break, he’s batted .359 with an absurd .743 slugging percentage (18 doubles, 5 triples, 22 homers). His OPS is 1.168 since the break, which means mathematically he’s averaging a little over a base gained per at-bat. Giving him one base rather than seeing if he’ll get two, three or four in an at-bat actually seems like a decent proposition.
Milwaukee finishes the season with a three-game series against the Tigers. They are still competing to beat out the Cubs for the NL Central crown to avoid the wild-card playoff game. Detroit seemingly has very little motivation to avoid pitching to Yelich, but if he remains hot, teams in the postseason might try the Cardinals’ approach.
