Brewers tie division, behind Yelich’s two HR’s, with 6-5 win; one game left to play

Milwaukee , W.I. ~ In a game the Brewers needed to win, Christian Yelich delivered once again. Just give the man the MVP already.

Yelich homered twice, both in clutch situations, and his seventh inning line drive to right proved to be the difference in a back and forth game, ending with a 6-5 win over the Detroit Tigers at a sold out Miller Park.

And since the Cubs lost earlier in the afternoon, the Brewers are now tied for first place in the NL Central, with all but one game to play in the regular season with both teams at 94-67. Earlier in the month the Brewers trailed the Cubs by six games in the division, but the Brew Crew chipped their way up with key wins against the Cubs, and now find themselves with a shot to take home the division crown for the first time since 2011.

“This is the position you want to be in as a player,” Yelich told reporters after the game. “That’s what we’ve been talking about since spring training. We have that opportunity to do it. The atmosphere in these games carries you through and you’re just loaded with adrenaline throughout the game.”

This one was a back and forth game; the Tigers took an early 3-0 lead, but by the end of the fourth innings the Brewers led 5-3, thanks to clutch hits by Yelich, Jonathan Schoop, and Erik Kratz. However, the Tigers clawed their way back into the game with a Nick Castellanos homer, and a sac fly that tied it.

Then Yelich took over the game.

With two on and two out in the top of the sixth Detroit’s best hitter, Castellanos stepped up to the plate. He lined a shot into deep right field, but the Brewers star was there, crashing up against the wall to make the catch and end the inning.

Yelich was due up to lead off the inning in the bottom half of the seventh, and feeding off the crowd’s energy, hit a go ahead solo homer to give Milwaukee the lead, and set Miller Park into a frenzy of M-V-P chants.

That homer not only gave his team the lead in the game, but it tied him with St. Louis first-basemen Matt Carpenter for the National League lead in homeruns, at 36. Yelich who already lead the NL in batting average, now finds himself two RBI’s away from Chicago’s Javy Baez from being the National League’s first Triple Crown winner since 1973.

After that, the Brewers bullpen took over, shutting down the Tigers through the last couple innings. Joakim Soria pitched a three up, three down seventh, and Corey Knebel and Jeremy Jeffress both struck out the side in the eighth and ninth.

The crowd probably played a huge factor, it was the eighth largest crowd in Miller Park history, with 45,520 stepping food in the stadium,

In his post game press conference, Craig Counsell named Gio Gonzalez as the starter for tomorrow, as the Brewers hope to win the NL Central.

By Jacob Szczap