Yelich ties Fielder's record with 29th HR

MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers are playing their worst baseball since a similar stretch ahead of last year’s All-Star break. But someone forgot to tell Christian Yelich.

Yelich drove in three runs and smashed a tape-measure home run for the third straight game to tie Prince Fielder’s franchise record for long balls before the break, though it once again all went for naught in an 11-7 loss to the Reds at Miller Park on Friday night that extended Milwaukee’s longest skid this season to five games.

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Chase Anderson put the Brewers in a 3-0 hole before they came to bat and fell into a 6-1 deficit by the fifth, when Yelich hit a two-run home run (his Major League-leading 29th) and Mike Moustakas followed two batters later with a solo shot (No. 21) on the same day both Yelich and Moustakas were named All-Star Game finalists along with Brewers catcher Yasmani Grandal.

For Yelich, the 420-footer off Sonny Gray came a day after Yelich hit a 462-foot homer in Thursday’s series-opening loss to the Reds, and two days after a 447-foot homer in Wednesday’s loss at San Diego.

“I like volume,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said Friday afternoon. “Distance doesn’t do anything for me.”

OK, how’s this for volume:

• Yelich tied Fielder’s franchise mark for home runs before the All-Star break with 15 games to go. Fielder hit 29 homers before the break in 2007, the year he set the single-season club record with 50. Fielder logged his first 29 homers that season in 86 games played and 87 team games; Yelich got there in 69 games played and 76 team games.

• Thanks to his recent surge, Yelich is on a pace to hit 61 home runs. Only five players in history have hit 60-plus in a season, including Sammy Sosa three times and Mark McGwire twice. No one has reached that plateau since Barry Bonds (73) and Sosa (64) in 2001.

• Last year, on the way to hitting 36 home runs and winning the National League Most Valuable Player Award, Yelich did not hit his 29th home run until Sept. 14.

• In the last calendar year, including Friday’s homer and an RBI double in the eighth inning, Yelich is hitting .349 with 39 doubles, seven triples, 56 home runs and 141 RBIs. Going into Friday night, his slugging percentage in that span is .720. Second place is Mike Trout at .611.

• In June, Yelich is hitting .453 (34-for-75) with eight doubles, a triple, eight home runs and 17 RBIs. He has 68 total bases in 15 games this month, with eight more games on the schedule. The franchise record for total bases in June is 75, shared by Fielder (2009) and Jeromy Burnitz (1999). The franchise record for total bases in any month is 83, for Robin Yount in July 1982. Yelich tallied 82 total bases in March/April this season.

Oh, and he’s on a career-best 18-game hitting streak.

“He makes the game look like a video game,” said Anderson. “You’re on your Xbox. Push ‘X’, home run. Push ‘X’, triple. To have a guy like that in your offense is definitely nice. Us pitchers as a whole, we’re trying to keep runs off the board so that guy can put runs on the board for us. We’ll work on that. We’ll get better.”

Yelich is doing the sort of stuff that typically would lead a winning streak, but not the way the Brewers are pitching. Anderson and Corbin Burnes each issued bases-loaded walks on Friday, a day after Jimmy Nelson did the same. Just like Nelson in the series opener, Anderson gave the Reds four free bases in the first inning with two walks and two hit batters before Jose Iglesias delivered a two-run single for a 3-0 lead before the Brewers came to bat.

The ERA of Brewers starters, which had come down during the month of May, is back up to 4.98, fourth highest in the NL. Milwaukee’s relievers were no better on Friday, when Guerra and Burnes combined to yield five runs in the seventh and eighth as the Brewers’ deficit grew to 11-4.

Milwaukee rallied late to bring Reds closer Raisel Iglesias into the fray before falling for the seventh time in eight games and the eighth time in 10 games.

“We feel like this is a rough patch in what is going to be a very successful season,” Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said during a visit to the television booth in the third inning. “And we need to keep going. We need to fight through it.”

There is a growing chorus of voices arguing the Brewers need outside help to fight through it. Naturally, Stearns is shopping.

“We’re certainly exploring the market for potential additions that can help our team, but a lot of our focus in a time like this is internally,” Stearns said. “How can we help our guys get going? My job is to support the guys in uniform as much as possible, and that’s never more true than when we’re going through a stretch like this.”

In the meantime, the Brewers need a starting pitcher to snap the losing streak. On Saturday afternoon they will hand the baseball to their Opening Day starter, Jhoulys Chacin.

“That’s what we need,” Counsell said. “We just haven’t gotten any length. … We need more, there’s no question. And we need zeros, too. We’re not handing the ball to our bullpen with a lead very often.”