Christian Yelich will try to match a major league record when the Milwaukee Brewers host the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday afternoon to wrap up a four-game series.
Yelich, the reigning National League Most Valuable Player, has homered in each of his first three games of the season. That represents a franchise record and is one shy of the all-time mark, shared by five players.
A home run in the series finale would give Yelich a piece of the record along with Willie Mays (San Francisco Giants, 1971), Mark McGwire (Cardinals, 1998), Nelson Cruz (Texas Rangers, 2011), Chris Davis (Baltimore Orioles, 2013) and Trevor Story (Colorado Rockies, 2016). Yelich is coming off a career-best season with 36 homers and 110 RBIs.
“Nothing’s really changed, I guess is what I’d say,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell told reporters in comments published by MLB.com. “He’s been locked in since the first day of spring training.”
Milwaukee has won two of the series’ first three games, including a 4-2 victory on Saturday night. Brewers hitters have already clubbed eight home runs, through three games in front of their hometown fans.
Cardinals right-hander Michael Wacha will attempt to quiet those bats in his first appearance of the 2019 campaign. The seventh-year veteran has a career record of 53-32 with a 3.77 ERA in 136 games (127 starts).
In 11 games (10 starts) against Milwaukee, Wacha is 5-0 with a 4.19 ERA. He has 53 strikeouts in 53 2/3 innings.
This figures to be a telling year for Wacha, 27, who is set to become a free agent at the end of the season. The former first-round pick out of Texas A&M has been hindered by injuries throughout his career but says he feels good now.
Wacha told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he is trying to stay in the moment rather than wonder about his future.
“It’s important not to get caught up in that stuff, from my end,” Wacha said during a spring training interview with the newspaper. “This is just a great clubhouse. That’s why you see me smiling. Guys having fun, meshing well and building that team chemistry. That’s very important in this game in order to win.”
One new arrival is first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who has three homers and six RBIs in his first three games with his new team. The Cardinals acquired him from the Arizona Diamondbacks during the offseason and locked him up with a five-year, $130 million contract extension just before the start of the season.
Goldschmidt and his teammates will try to escape with a series tie against Brewers right-hander Corbin Burnes, who will make his first career start after appearing in 30 games out of the bullpen in 2018. The 24-year-old won a spot in the starting rotation this spring after going 7-0 with a 2.61 ERA in 38 relief innings last season.
Burnes went 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in three bullpen appearances against the Cardinals a year ago.