Christian Yelich finds power stroke, mashes two home runs to lead Brewers to 9-6 win over Nationals

The former MVP hit a pair of dingers, his first long balls in over a month.

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals faced off in a Saturday afternoon tilt, and Eric Lauer and the homestanding Brew Crew found themselves in a hole early. Lane Thomas got things rolling with a leadoff, ground rule double, and then Alcides Escobar got hit by a pitch. Juan Soto singled to center to bring Thomas home and move Escobar to third base, and then Nats legend Ryan Zimmerman lofted a sac fly to center to make it a 2-0 game.

The Brewers answered back right away in the bottom of the first against old friend Paolo Espino. With one out, Christian Yelich came to the plate and crushed the first pitch he saw for a solo dinger to center field. His 7th bomb of the season was his first since July 18th — a span of 69 plate appearances — and made it 2-1 Nationals.

Things quieted down after that, for the next few innings at least. The scoring picked up again in the fifth. In the top of the frame, Thomas singled with one out to get things rolling, then Escobar doubled to left and to bring him all the way home and make it 3-1. After an intentional walk to Juan Soto, Lauer was lifted in favor of Jake Cousins. He induced a couple of groundouts to end the threat and get the Brewers to the bottom of the inning.

With one out in the bottom half of the inning, Lorenzo Cain drew a pinch-hit walk to start the rally for the Brewers. Kolten Wong singled to move Cain up to third, and then Espino was pulled and replaced by Gabe Klobosits. Yelich came up and singled, bringing home Cain to make it 3-2 while also moving Wong up to third base. Yelich stole second, and the next batter, Omar Narvaez, popped out in foul territory on the first base side. Seeing that no one was covering home, Wong dashed in from third and beat the attempted tag to tie the game at 3-3.

Eduardo Escobar kept the line moving with a single that scored Yelich and gave Milwaukee the 4-3 advantage, although that lead would be short-lived.

Brent Suter came in for the top of the 6th, and the first batter he faced, Yadiel Hernandez took a 2-0 fastball out over the fence in left-center to tie the game back up at 4-4. Things would stay that way until the bottom of the eighth, when Milwaukee put up a big crooked number to jump ahead for good. Luis Urias got on base via catcher interference, then moved to third on a single by On-Base Jace Peterson. Jackie Bradley, Jr. and Kolten Wong were both hit by pitches, forcing home a run to break the tie, then Christian Yelich stepped in and put some BMIRs on the board.

Miguel Sanchez got the ball to close out the five-run game, but loaded the bases and had to be replaced by Josh Hader. He didn’t have the best time, allowing a walk and a single that brought in two runs, but he was able to get three outs and end the ballgame at 9-6. On Sunday afternoon, the Brewers will face the Nationals for the series finale. Adrian Houser is set to face off against old friend Sean Nolin, with first pitch scheduled to 1:10 PM central.