MILWAUKEE -- Christian Yelich was about to step on first base when it dawned on him. For all he’s experienced in his career, from being a first-round Draft pick to being traded, the All-Star Games and an MVP Award, and baring everything for ESPN’s Body Issue, he was about to do something entirely new.
“It was a weird feeling going around the bases knowing that the game was over,” Yelich said. “I’ve never done that before.”
He did it Tuesday, when Yelich’s first career walk-off home run was a grand slam with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning, giving the Brewers a thriller of a 5-1 win over the Red Sox in extras at American Family Field.
Yelich may have delivered the moment for the franchise’s all-time highlight reel, but this was a team effort that included right fielder Sal Frelick, who threw out a runner at third base as the teams dueled in the early innings, then singled home the tying run with one out in the bottom of the ninth to cash-in a rally that began with Yelich’s double. Those two huge hits came against towering Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman, who is so intimidating for left-handed hitters that, as Frelick put it, “you have to prepare to die in there.”
Then the Brewers had to hold off the Red Sox in the 10th with so many of Milwaukee’s top relievers down for the day because they’d been worked to the limit in recent games. So manager Pat Murphy gave the toughest outs to journeyman left-hander Rob Zastryzny, who warmed up three times on Tuesday alone before finally getting into the game against Boston’s two most heralded hitters, Jarren Duran and Rafael Devers. Zastryzny managed to retire them both to freeze the go-ahead runner at third.
So what did he think as he saw Yelich connect?
“If I could trade spots with him and feel the hit of the grand slam, I would,” Zastryzny said. “But it still feels unbelievable.”
Imagine how it felt for Yelich, who was 0-for-3 in the game, including an inning-ending popout in the sixth when the Brewers had the tying runner at third base, before he led off the ninth against Chapman and punched a double right over third base.
It was his first career hit against Chapman, though that put Yelich in plenty of company. The players who suited up for the Brewers on Tuesday were a combined 0-for-17 against Chapman going into the night.
“As a lefty, you just stick your nose in there and try to make something happen, whether it’s a single, a walk, anything,” Yelich said. “I hit it right off my thumbs over the third-base bag.”
“Being here with ‘Yeli’ as long as I have, we’ve all seen that base hit,” Murphy said. “Then his baserunning, he gives you third [on a stolen base]. That’s why he’s a great player, because he does those other things. He does a lot of little things.”
That effort led to a big thing in the 10th, when Brice Turang singled and Jackson Chourio walked against Boston’s Liam Hendriks to load the bases. It set up Yelich’s sixth career grand slam, and the Brewers’ first walk-off grand slam since Daniel Vogelbach sent American Family Field into a frenzy by hitting one against the Cardinals on Sept. 5, 2021, as Milwaukee was closing in on a division title.
These Brewers have work to do to put themselves in a similar position, but recent days have brought promise. On Sunday in Pittsburgh, they secured their first multi-run comeback victory all season. Two days later, they won for the first time when they trailed after eight innings and pulled back to .500 at 28-28.
“We’re just fighting, battling, trying to stack wins on top of each other,” Yelich said. “It hasn't been as smooth of a season as everybody is accustomed to, but that’s how baseball works. The seasons are never the same.”
Before the bottom of the ninth, the Brewers found themselves in a deficit even though the Red Sox hadn’t driven in a run. The night’s only tally through 8 1/2 innings scored in the top of the sixth, when Ceddanne Rafaela chased Brewers starter Aaron Civale with a double and eventually scored on reliever Aaron Ashby’s two-out wild pitch.
Had that result held, it would have been exceedingly rare. Only seven times in Brewers history had they lost a game without the opponent logging a single RBI, most recently last April 29 against the Rays, when the only run in a 1-0 loss scored on a first-inning double play.
An inning later, all that was forgotten.
“When ‘Yeli’ came up there, it just felt like that’s where he was supposed to be,” Frelick said. “It was really awesome seeing him go up there and smack one. I think we all knew.”