Christian Yelich always believed he could get back to hitting the way he had earlier in his career, even as he encountered skepticism about his chances of making a successful comeback from back surgery.
The Milwaukee Brewers slugger has responded by putting together his first 100-RBI season since making his National League Most Valuable Player run in 2018.
Yelich on Thursday went two for four and drove in his 100th run of the year in the Brewers’ 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. The milestone reflected how far he has come since back issues ended his season prematurely last year.
Photo: AFP
“There were a lot of questions obviously that I had to answer,” Yelich said. “People doubting whether or not I could play. I felt like I was still going to be able to play at a high level after dealing with what I had to deal with, all the back stuff.”
Yelich was leading the NL in on-base percentage and batting average last year before his season ended. He underwent a diskectomy in August last year to remove the damaged part of a disk in the spine.
Then he began the long road back.
Now he is tied for third in the NL in RBIs, behind only the Philadelphia Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber and the New York Mets’ Pete Alonso. He also has 29 homers, putting him in a tie for eighth in the NL.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy believes those numbers could be even better if Yelich just had a little more luck.
“You’d be astounded how many balls he’s hit at a 100 [miles per hour, 160.9kph]-plus rate that were caught,” Murphy said.
Yelich also had to bounce back from a rough start. He was hitting below .200 as late as May 23, at a time when the Brewers owned a losing record.
Once he started heating up, so did the Brewers. Milwaukee (94-59) are 35 games above .500 for the first time in franchise history.
“That’s our guy,” rookie third baseman Caleb Durbin said. “We’ve kind of relied on him all year. He’s the backbone of this team. It’s a team effort, but we go where Yeli goes.”
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