MILWAUKEE _ The Cardinals thought they had taken care of that Christian Yelich thing. They retired him not once, but twice in the third inning Tuesday night at Miller Park.
Now, if you're doing the math, that means Milwaukee had at least 10 hitters come to the plate in that inning. The Brewers, in fact, had 11 batsmen. Three of them were left on base when Yelich struck out to end the inning. Five others scored as the Brewers were well on their way to an 8-4 rout of the Cardinals, marking their fifth win in six games against their National League Central Division rivals.
But did you really think Yelich had nothing to do with this? How do you think the Brewers' other three runs were produced?
Yelich, greeting rookie Ryan Helsley, making his major league debut, launched his eighth homer in six games here against the Cardinals with his three-run drive in the fifth. That gave him 18 runs batted in against the Cardinals _ three per game _ and 24 in eight games dating back to two games in St. Louis in September last year.
The Cardinals' Marcell Ozuna answered with a two-run homer off Brandon Woodruff in the sixth, giving Ozuna four homers in his last three games and seven overall. He is tied with Paul Goldschmidt for the team lead in homers and leads in runs batted in at 15 after a poor start.
Helsley, after his rough debut, rebounded to top 100 mph on a few pitches and struck out four of the next seven batters he faced from the fifth through the seventh.
Yadier Molina and Kolten Wong both knocked in runs in the eighth but the Cardinals stranded two runners when pinch hitter Jedd Gyorko struck out.
