Brewers’ Christian Yelich bounces back from his slump

Christian Yelich, Brewers outfielder (⬆️ UP)

Can people take their finger off the panic button now? After his slow (understatement) start to the season, Yelich showed signs of returning to his MVP form this past week. He went 6-for-21 with a double, a triple, three home runs, seven runs and six RBI. Yelich also walked (6) more than he struck out (5). That’s a six-game slash line of .286/.444/.857.

Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta, Brewers pitchers (⬆️ UP)

On Saturday, Burnes tossed five innings in relief, allowing just one hit while striking out eight. It marked just the third time in Brewers history a reliever allowed one hit and fanned eight (Josh Hader in 2018 and Mark Knudson in 1991 are the others). Two days later, Peralta whiffed eight in four scoreless innings.

Freddy Peralta: First Brewers pitcher to strike out 8+ batters in a relief appearance since… Corbin Burnes on Saturday! Throwing out the “opener” junk, the only other team this century to have two pitchers do it in the same season is the 2006 Cubs (Glendon Rusch, Angel Guzman).

— Doug Kern (@dakern74) August 11, 2020

Peralta also fanned six in three scoreless innings last Thursday. For those who don’t want to do the math, that’s seven innings, two hits, no runs, two walks and 14 strikeouts last week for Peralta. Now that’s some relief.

Ben Gamel, Brewers outfielder (⬇️ DOWN)

With Lorenzo Cain opting out, Gamel’s opportunity arose. He didn’t take advantage of it last week. In six games, Gamel was just 2-for-22 and struck out 12 times. Gamel is just 2-for-12 against left-handed pitchers this season, although he’s had success in the past vs. southpaws (.282/.349/.409 career slash line).

Khris Middleton, Bucks forward (⬆️ UP)

With the playoffs approaching, Middleton is starting to get into high gear. Playing in three of Milwaukee’s four games the past week, Middleton averaged 23.7 points, 7.3 assists and 5.3 rebounds while making 60.5% of his shots, including 7-for-11 from 3. For good measure, he also didn’t miss any of his 18 free-throw attempts.

Brook Lopez, Bucks center (⬆️ UP)

Is anyone surprised Lopez has had some of his best games of the season at Disney World? In Saturday’s overtime loss against Dallas, Lopez poured in a season-high 34 points (to go with seven rebounds and two blocks), making 6 of 12 3-point attempts in the process. He kept up his long-range accuracy Tuesday vs. Washington, going 5-for-5 from deep in scoring 24 points – his second-best scoring output of the season – in just 23 minutes.

Badgers football (⬇️ DOWN)

Welp, see you next year.