MLB – Christian Yelich leads NL MVP after second cycle

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Spend a night, Christian Yelich:

Yelich finished 4th for 4 and hit for the cycle as the Brewers cleared the Reds 8-0. If this sounds familiar to you, it's that Yelich has hit for the cycle earlier this season against the Reds, making him the fifth player with two cycles in a season and the first player with two against the same team.

He took a short break on his triple because a better relay shot would have allowed Curtis Granderson to make a place for the post. In this case, Yelich would have been credited with a double and a third place in the throw. But that's what kind of second half for Yelich, with a dominant race that put him in the MVP NL race.

Yelich has hit .355 / .417 / .733 since the All-Star break. In the second half, he was second in the majors ahead of Justin Turner in OPS, second after Khris Davis with 20 homers (Davis was 22), second at Davis in the RBI (51-50), first in the shots, fourth in the trials and second. in extra-basic hits. He is neck and neck with the Reds Scooter Gennett in the NL batting race (both are at .318), he has a slim advantage over Paul Goldschmidt for the NL lead in OPS (.955 a. 953). second in the races, and he is in the top 10 with 31 circuits and 93 RBIs. He does it while the Brewers face the Cubs for the NL Central title.

Yes, they are MVP numbers. Yelich could even be the smallest favorite at the moment, considering that voters have historically enjoyed a strong second-half increase (although Javier Baez helped his case with a two-point homer with Patrick Corbin while the Cubs beat the Diamondbacks 5 -1). Yelich has already broken his career in the home race – he reached 21 for the Marlins in 2016 – but that's not necessarily a surprise.

Since he arrived in Miami in 2013 as a 21-year-old with a refined game, Yelich was waiting to become a star player (he made his first team of stars this year) . Yelich hit .290 in his five seasons with the Marlins, but did not reach double digits at home until his fourth year, although he hit the ball consistently. In 2017, he placed 20th in the majors in average exit velocity but only hit 18 home runs. The problem: he hit too many balls on the ground. In 2017, he had the sixth highest number of ground balls on 144 qualifications.

It's there that you expect me to tell you that Yelich has changed his pitch angle and started hitting more balls. Not exactly:

It strikes more linear commands but no more flying balls. So where does the power come from? Two areas:

(A) Yelich hit the ball harder, as his average exit speed went from 90.4 mph to 92.1, although there is something that does not add up in statistics. Last year, 29 batters with at least 150 ball events hit an average of 90 mph in exit speed; this year, that number is 75.

(B) Yelich fired the ball more. That's the main reason – just check out the circuit he hit on Monday, a track on the right. It was not deep, but it was deep enough. Check its traction rates over the years:

2015: 31.5%
2016: 37.1%
2017: 32.5%
2018: 42.1%

Last year, Yelich hit 11 runs right or center of the field. This year he hit 26 (although more in the middle). Finally, the move to Milwaukee – one of the best training grounds for the majors – has certainly helped, Yelich having an average of 1.027 at home and an average of .887 on the road, with 19 of his 31 home homers. Park. Last year, he hit only seven home runs at Marlins Park, his stadium.

So you have a player who reached his peak at 26, learning to exploit his power a little better and moving to a better park. This has been a perfect fit for the player and the team.

Yelich even got his ball back:

Cardinals hammer Braves: It was a wild game in Atlanta, while the Cardinals won 11-6, beating 6-5 with three points in the eighth and two in the ninth. As the highlights of Harrison Bader are always good, here is his circuit of three races, two outings in the eighth:

The Braves have somehow abandoned this one as they have gone through seven batters, five of which have come to score. Mike Foltynewicz had his first bad start in a while, walking four times and dropping six points in 4 2/3 innings. He equaled his shortest outing of the season. Maybe it was just one of those starts, but he is now 170 2/3 innings after launching 154 in 2017 and 150 1/3 in 2016, so he is hitting a new territory in charge of work . It's something to watch for in his next departure.

Edwin Diaz gets another backup: Remember the Mariners? I mentioned them a lot for the first four months, but not so much the last four or five weeks. Really, we just wanted to show you Dan Vogelbach's grand slam that allowed Seattle to beat the Astros 4-1 (good for the A!):

Diaz recovered his 56th save to climb to third place on the list of all time:

Francisco Rodriguez, 2008 Angels: 62
Bobby Thigpen, 1990 White Sox: 57
Diaz, 2018 Mariners: 56
Eric Gagne, 2003 Dodgers: 55
John Smoltz, 2003 Braves: 55

The Mariners have 12 games to play. They must win seven with Diaz who saved them all to break the record.

Dodgers rout the Rockies, move in first: It was finished early, while the Dodgers were jumping everywhere in a bad Jon Gray. Joc Pederson started a home race. By the way, he had a very strong season as a platoon player by hitting .251 / .324 / .519. The Dodgers added a second point in the first and four more in the third on four consecutive shots: Pederson doubled, Justin Turner aked, Manny Machado hit an RBI center when Charlie Blackmon seemed to return Story Max Muncy clinched a three-point circuit, overwriting a cursor in the center right.

The other big novelty of this game: Trevor Story left the game after appearing to injure his wrist during a fourth inning. Keep an eye on an update on Tuesday.

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