Brewers outfielder and reigning NL MVP Christian Yelich is off to a hot start this season. He punctuated his Opening Day performance with a first-pitch, three-RBI home run off of the Cardinals’ Miles Mikolas, then mashed a late-game solo shot off of Andrew Miller in the eighth inning of Friday’s 9-5 loss.
So, it seemed only fitting that Yelich extend that streak again on Saturday. In the first inning, he pounced on an 0-1 sinker from Dakota Hudson right out of the gate, lifting it 396 feet out to left-center field to put the Brewers on the board:
With his third home run in as many games, the 27-year-old became the first-ever Brewers player to go yard in each of the club’s first three games of the season (h/t MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy). If he can eke out just one more homer in Sunday’s series finale, he’ll be the first to complete the feat since Trevor Story collected four home runs for the Rockies in 2016 -- just the sixth to do so in MLB history. If he can then carry that streak all the way through Monday’s series opener against the Reds, he’ll be the first and only player on that list.
All together, the Brewers have collected eight home runs against the Cardinals this weekend, including a pair of Opening Day solo shots by Mike Moustakas and Jhoulys Chacín, Ryan Braun’s three-run dinger on Friday, and another two long balls from Moustakas and Travis Shaw on Saturday. (It’s not as if the Cardinals haven’t tried to return the favor, though, especially with Kolten Wong’s two-homer effort on Thursday and a stunning three-homer performance from Paul Goldschmidt on Friday.)
The Brewers currently lead the Cardinals 4-2 in the top of the seventh.
