BenFred: Stop the presses. The cardinals calmed Christian Yelich. Are they something? | Ben Frederickson

The cardinals have retired from Christian Yelich to four – four! – Monday night times, and there can be bigger news.

The Blues are still running. MLS wants us. But these are minor subjects compared to the dismantling of a death star by the Cardinals.

It was not Sunday's anguish that you felt after the Cardinals weekend ended with a victory over the Mets. Sweaty hands and construction-related anxiety were not related to your pollen allergy. You suffered from a complication felt across the country of the Cardinals. It's called the itchy yellow. Common side effects include business regrets and cold sweats every time the National League MVP and defending division champions appear.

A game is not a cure, but the cardinals may be on the right track. They calmed Yelich. They beat the brewers. Both tend to go together – even when unnamed brewers Yelich start beating like him.

When entering this series, Milwaukee is 7-3 when Yelich comes home and 6-7 when he does not. The Brewers were 5-1 against the Cardinals when Yelich came home, and 0-1 when he did not. Do that 0-2.

Before Monday's game, Yelich took his teammates to his favorite lunch spot. Not only does he enjoy rocking the cardinals, he also eats our award-winning Pappy's barbecue. The nerve! No, Cardinals do not want Yelich to choke on a rib. And they are not interested – at least not yet – in putting him on heights. But they say that they have finished feeding Yelich's dessert.

"Cookies," said manager Mike Shildt before the 13-5 victory on Monday.

As in the interior, nobody devours like Sweet Yelich. He became a monster cookie in the cleats. So no more cookies. It seems simple enough. The problem is that the difference between a good pitch for Yelich and a cookie is reduced to the width of a wafer.

"I do not want to downplay what he does," said Shildt. "The guy is a talented player. All I will say is that if we shoot, we have a very good chance of making him deadly. "

As Shildt tackled a new series of exhaustive questions about the rival who smashed his throwers, a video board hanging over the right field of Busch Stadium scrolled through the circuit's most impressive stats. Yelich's name was at the top of the list of RBI leaders in the National League. The left-handed slugger entered the series with 31 of them, eight more than Cody Bellinger, second. Only three strikers from NL – Yelich, Bellinger and Dansby Swanson of Atlanta – had more than 19 RBIs. Yelich had 19 against the Cardinals alone.

Since the Marlins traded Yelich to Milwaukee for the past season, he's led the National League on average (.332), base percentage (.410) and slugging percentage (.631). He was even better against the Cardinals, cutting .333 / .456 / .905 in 84 in the attack on Monday. Yelich has 14 home runs and 19 more successes against the Cardinals since he became Brewer. During this period, no other NHL player has more than the six circuits of Yasiel Puig and the 11 additional successes of Adam Frazier.

Walk it! We screamed on our screens when the Cardinals were in Milwaukee, and the way Yelich strikes there, it's never a bad idea to score a goal. But Yelich arrived at Busch by striking only 0.270 / 0.325 / 0.324 in unnamed parks Miller. He had not yet dominated on the road. The cardinals had to try to get Yelich out. They needed to beat the other brewers.

"It's just a matter of execution," said Shildt. "I know it's not a sexy answer. But that's really the honest truth. If you look and pay attention, the guy went out. "

Figures produced by STATS LLC prove Shildt's point. Draw a hitting area. Cut this square into nine squares by making three columns of three. You visualize this from the receiver's point of view. Place your finger on the square directly in the middle. Of the 31 sites offered at Yelich, he beat 87.1% of them, came into contact with 88.9% of these swings and averaged 0.526. Now move your finger one square to the right. Not up. Step down. Just a square to where the left hand is hitting Yelich. Yelich witnessed internal strikes on 33 at the belt level, with 72.7% attacks against an average of 0.071. Great difference in the results. Barely a difference of place.

Dakota Hudson has given two long balls to Yelich this season. Both fields were strikes. The one was middle-middle. The other was half-low. Both are danger zones of Yelich. Yelich skipped a fast Michael Wacha ball for a home run. It was not even a strike. But it was halfway through and in a hurry. Miles Mikolas is caught in the middle. Faded away. Same for Ryan Helsley and John Brebbia. Of the 13 Yelich races against the Redbirds, only two came on throws for which the Cardinals could feel good after the exam. Yelich crashed a fastball Andrew Miller who found the inside edge. He also crashed a Mike Mayers fastball that was both inside and high. On these, you flip your cap.

Monday night, Jack Flaherty served cookies. Three Brewers yielded at home against him. Relator Giovanny Gallegos has made a fourth. The silver lining? None of them belonged to Yelich. The cards beat the other brewers. The other brewers could not.

Against Yelich, Flaherty worked in turns. He went very low with a dirty slider, caused two ground throws inside fastballs and went high for a striking Yelich eyebrow attack. Yelich squeezed for the third time against Dominic Leone, the third defender. It was only the sixth time in 24 games – and the first time against the Cardinals – he finished the game without a hit.

"Another hitter," said starting Tuesday's Daniel Ponce de Leon. "He is human."

Well, at least for a day.