Brewers to hold out Christian Yelich for 2nd straight game in Phillies finale

Since a slow start, Yelich has turned in another strong season. Already, his 27 homers and 92 driven in are career bests since 2019. Those figures lead the team by a substantial margin. Sandwiched around a July cool down, he torched in June and August. Although the Brewers have a sneaky number of power sources, the lineup needs Yelich in the middle of it, and hopefully they’ll have him back soon.

The offense as a whole has picked up since the San Francisco series, pushing across 48 runs in nine games. The Brewers have been treading water for a few weeks, but, along with an offensive cold spell, that’s also due to inconsistent starting pitching from just about everyone but Freddy Peralta, and a depleted bullpen.

On that front, the news does not get better. Milwaukee received another, if anticipated blow with the announcement that Shelby Miller, the team’s main pickup at the trade deadline, will miss the rest of the season due to an elbow injury, possibly in need of a second Tommy John procedure.

While the bullpen licked its wounds, Jose Quintana bounced back on Wednesday for a strong start in the 6-3 win. The Brewers have the luxury of turning to Peralta, August’s NL Pitcher of the Month, for the finale.

In the batting order, Chourio is a candidate to fill in again for Yelich at DH. Murphy could also decide to sit right fielder Sal Frelick against a tough lefty in Philadelphia’s Ranger Suarez, using Chourio in the outfield and deploying another right-hander as the designated hitter.