logo
Christian Yelich delivers huge night in Brewers' wild comeback win while using Bob Uecker bat

Christian Yelich delivers huge night in Brewers' wild comeback win while using Bob Uecker bat

New York Post2 days ago
Christian Yelich had arguably his best game of the season while paying homage to late announcer Bob Uecker.
During the Brewers' 10-8 comeback win — Milwaukee's 13th in a row — over the Reds on Friday, Yelich, 33, went 4-for-5 at the plate with a double, two home runs, and five RBIs. And he did it all with a custom-made bat themed around Uecker for MLB Players' Weekend.
The bat, painted light blue, featured a picture of Uecker along with two of his famous lines — 'Get up, get outta here!' and 'Juuuuust a bit outside' — on the barrel.
3 Milwaukee Brewers' Christian Yelich stands in the on-deck circle, holding a custom bat for Players' Weekend, in the first inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Cincinnati.
AP
Going into Friday's game, Yelich has posted a slash line of .266/.344/.456 along with 23 home runs and 81 RBIs through 113 games played this season.
Yelich had the bat made ahead of Players' Weekend last season, but was not able to use it due to his season-ending back surgery in August.
3 Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers celebrates his second solo home run of the game during the sixth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on August 15, 2025 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Getty Images
Uecker, who died at 90 years old in January, had developed a close relationship with Yelich during the outfielder's tenure with Milwaukee.
Following Friday's game, Yelich told reporters that he has had Uecker on his mind during the Brewers' winning streak.
'Of course,' he said. 'That's true for everybody around here.'
3 Milwaukee Brewers designated hitter Christian Yelich (22) hits a solo home run in the second inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.
Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
'Obviously, I miss him,' Yelich added.
Yelich opened up about his relationship with Uecker back in May, saying how genuine a person he was.
'I think his biggest gift was he was authentically himself,' Yelich told ESPN then. 'This is Bob Uecker. He genuinely cares how you're doing. A young player gets called up for the first time, he knows everything about him, first time he's ever met him, but he knows where he went to school, where he's from. What he's about. I tried to learn from that.'
The Brewers hold the best record in the MLB at 77-44 and sit atop the NL Central with a nine-game lead.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Column: Milwaukee Brewers are suddenly a touchy topic for Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell
Column: Milwaukee Brewers are suddenly a touchy topic for Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell

Chicago Tribune

time4 hours ago

  • Chicago Tribune

Column: Milwaukee Brewers are suddenly a touchy topic for Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell

It was sometime during Saturday morning's pregame media session that Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell facetiously cut off questions about Wisconsin. He'd been asked about the Milwaukee Brewers' 13-game winning streak, their jovial manager, Pat Murphy, and the divisional race the Brewers are now running away with after the Cubs spent the first four months in first place. The way things were headed, Counsell might have feared answering questions about the Mars Cheese Castle, the Green Bay Packers receiving corps and his favorite lunch spot at the Wisconsin Dells. 'What did you expect?' I asked him. The Wisconsin native who left his job in Milwaukee for the bright lights of Chicago has watched his former team turn into baseball's best story, while the Cubs were doing Cub-like things, falling nine games back by mid-August after a sensational start. Asked if he could appreciate how 'great' a story the Brewers have been, Counsell deadpanned: 'What's so great about it? I mean, they're playing good. They're playing great. They haven't lost since we played them.' So is he annoyed by the fact the Brewers never lose? 'Well, the job is to try to win the division,' he replied. 'That's the ultimate goal, and they're really making that difficult. So from that perspective, yeah. We only get 13 chances to affect it though, right?' The Cubs, who went 4-4 against the Brewers in their first eight meetings, begin a five-game series against them Monday at Wrigley Field. It could be a wake if the Cubs don't wake up. They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1 on Saturday, while the Brewers won in dramatic fashion again, defeating the Cincinnati Reds 6-5 in 11 innings for their franchise-record 14th consecutive victory. Counsell didn't want to bury himself, as many Cubs managers before him have done, by saying something that would be used against him on sports-talk radio, the internet or the Brewers' virtual bulletin board. You couldn't blame him for dodging questions, just as you couldn't blame the media for asking. Counsell was a teenager in Milwaukee when the '87 Brewers won their first 13 games, setting a franchise record that was tied Friday in a crazy 10-8 comeback win over the Reds after trailing 8-1. The owner of the George Webb restaurant chain had promised to give away free burgers for one day after 12 straight Brewers wins, and eventually wound up handing out 168,192 freebies after the streak was reached in April 1987. Thanks to this year's streak, which reached 12 on Wednesday, the George Webb chain will do likewise from 2-6 p.m. Wednesday at all of the restaurant's 23 Wisconsin locations. Counsell didn't recall getting a free burger in '87 when I asked him about his childhood memories. In truth he said he was more a fan of the burgers from Kopp's Frozen Custard, another Wisconsin staple. 'Honestly, I've never seen a George Webb,' Counsell said, referring to the restaurant, not the person. I hadn't seen a George Webb either until 1987, when the Chicago Tribune sent me to Milwaukee to report on a story a month after the 13-game winning streak. Rev. Dominic Peluse, a New York Yankees fan and priest at an elementary school in Franklin, Wis., had promised his 200 students free burgers if the Brewers lost 12 straight. With the streak at 11 straight, Rev. Peluse said before the May 20th game against the White Sox he was in a 'state of frenzy,' realizing how much 200 burgers would cost him. The Sox won 5-1, and the priest was forced to pay off. Brewers owner Bud Selig, who would later become MLB commissioner, was perplexed at how a team could win 13 straight in April and then lose 12 straight in May. 'There are 26 weeks in the major-league season,' Selig told me that day at County Stadium. 'There are times in those 26 weeks when you think you're never going to lose, and times when you think you're never going to win. I never thought I'd see both of those so soon. This is not a human experience that I like going through.' Counsell probably can relate. This is not a human experience he likes going through either. Watching the 2025 Brewers look unstoppable while his Cubs struggle to score runs has been harder to digest than moldy cheese curds. Everything the Brewers touch seems to turns to gold, as evidenced by the play of former Sox first baseman Andrew Vaughn, who was acquired for pitcher Aaron Civale on June 13 after Vaughn had been demoted to Triple-A Charlotte three weeks earlier. Entering Saturday, the Brewers were 27-4 (an .871 win percentage) since Vaughn's debut July 7 at Dodger Stadium, where he hit a three-run homer in his first at-bat in a 9-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. When Vaughn was demoted to Charlotte on May 24, the White Sox were 15-35, a .300 win percentage, and the first baseman was hitting .189 with five home runs, 19 RBIs and a .531 OPS in 48 games. 'I had to understand what was going on and look at myself,' Vaughn told two Chicago reporters last month in Milwaukee. 'I had to take the ego out of it. Baseball is our job, and if you're not producing, sometimes that happens.' Sox general manager Chris Getz rationalized the deal by pointing to Vaughn becoming a free agent after 2026, saying 'where Vaughn is in his White Sox career contractually, it did make some sense to look at ways to help our team currently in finding an arm.' Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf appreciated the financial savings, no doubt, while Brewers GM Matt Arnold gambled on Vaughn and won big. Entering Saturday's game in Cincinnati, Vaughn was hitting .343 with nine home runs, 35 RBIs and a 1.051 OPS in 29 games. His 54 total RBIs are five more than Lenyn Sosa's 49, which lead the Sox. 'You never know what a change of scenery can do for you,' Brewers slugger Christian Yelich said of Vaughn's surge. 'He's been a really productive player in this league, and sometimes you get off to rough starts in a season. I've had a few of those in my career too. 'If you consistently stay at it, eventually it starts to turn. And it could be that change of scenery, getting into a different environment, a different culture … you never really know. He's done a great job, he's a great guy and he fits our group well.' Meanwhile, the Cubs will enter the showdown against the Brewers as decided underdogs. They need to finish first in the NL wild-card standings to play at home in a best-of-three wild-card series and are neck-and-neck with the San Diego Padres in the race for the No. 4 seed. 'That's the next goal, right?' Counsell said. 'The wild-card series is a three-game series for seeds 3-6. You get the advantage of being at home if you're the top seed. Otherwise you're on the road. But a three-game series is a three-game series. We know what can happen in a three-game series. You want it to be at home, but I'm not sure it matters in the playoffs. It matters, but it's small. That's what history tells us, at least.' History also tells us a team can win 13 games in a row and lose 12 straight one month later. You could look it up.

Bucks' Myles Turner contract considered 'worst' of NBA offseason
Bucks' Myles Turner contract considered 'worst' of NBA offseason

Yahoo

time7 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Bucks' Myles Turner contract considered 'worst' of NBA offseason

The Milwaukee Bucks made an interesting decision when they signed Myles Turner to a four-year, $108.9 million deal. On the surface, signing Turner to that contract made sense, but waiving and stretching Damian Lillard might not have. Unfortunately, the only way the Bucks could've made this work was if they had done exactly that with Lillard, and the front office was willing to take the risk. However, some believe it was the wrong one, including Yahoo Sports, which named Turner the worst free agency contract of the summer. 'On its own, the contract for Turner is not a bad one. The average annual value of $27.2 million is probably pretty close to an average salary for a starting center. And Turner is probably pretty close to an average starting center, even after he helped the Indiana Pacers to the 2025 NBA Finals last month... 'Because, in order to sign Turner into salary cap space, Milwaukee had to waive and stretch the $113 million left on Damian Lillard's contract. As a result, the Bucks will pay Lillard $22.5 million annually over the next five seasons not to play for them,' they wrote. MORE: It's tough to suggest that Turner is the worst contract on the free agency market this summer because it isn't his fault that the Bucks decided to get rid of Lillard. It's also unfair to say that the Bucks are paying him a certain amount of money when they're only paying him $108.9 million over four years. Ultimately, the Bucks had to make a tough choice and decided to do it, hoping to keep them competitive in a below-average Eastern Conference next season.

Brewers seek to extend win streak, play the Reds
Brewers seek to extend win streak, play the Reds

Yahoo

time7 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Brewers seek to extend win streak, play the Reds

Milwaukee Brewers (78-44, first in the NL Central) vs. Cincinnati Reds (64-60, third in the NL Central) Cincinnati; Sunday, 1:40 p.m. EDT PITCHING PROBABLES: Brewers: Jose Quintana (10-4, 3.44 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 69 strikeouts); Reds: Andrew Abbott (8-3, 2.41 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 105 strikeouts) BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Brewers -111, Reds -108; over/under is 9 1/2 runs BOTTOM LINE: The Milwaukee Brewers will try to build upon a 14-game win streak with a victory against the Cincinnati Reds. Cincinnati has a 64-60 record overall and a 35-29 record at home. The Reds rank ninth in the NL with 125 total home runs, averaging 1.0 per game. Milwaukee is 36-24 in road games and 78-44 overall. The Brewers have gone 58-6 in games when they scored five or more runs. The teams meet Sunday for the 10th time this season. The Brewers are up 7-2 in the season series. TOP PERFORMERS: Elly De La Cruz has 25 doubles, three triples and 19 home runs for the Reds. Noelvi Marte is 14 for 41 with six doubles and two home runs over the last 10 games. Sal Frelick has a .294 batting average to lead the Brewers, and has 13 doubles, three triples and nine home runs. Isaac Collins is 14 for 39 with two home runs and nine RBIs over the last 10 games. LAST 10 GAMES: Reds: 4-6, .251 batting average, 3.74 ERA, outscored opponents by one run Brewers: 10-0, .296 batting average, 3.42 ERA, outscored opponents by 41 runs INJURIES: Reds: Chase Burns: 15-Day IL (elbow), Nick Lodolo: 15-Day IL (finger), Wade Miley: 60-Day IL (flexor), Ian Gibaut: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Rhett Lowder: 60-Day IL (forearm), Carson Spiers: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Tyler Callihan: 60-Day IL (forearm), Brandon Williamson: 60-Day IL (elbow), Julian Aguiar: 60-Day IL (elbow) Brewers: D.L. Hall: 15-Day IL (oblique), Logan Henderson: 15-Day IL (elbow), Jackson Chourio: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Jordan Montgomery: 60-Day IL (elbow), Jake Bauers: 10-Day IL (shoulder), Rhys Hoskins: 10-Day IL (thumb), Garrett Mitchell: 60-Day IL (oblique), Rob Zastryzny: 15-Day IL (ribs), Connor Thomas: 60-Day IL (elbow), Robert Gasser: 60-Day IL (elbow) ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store