MINNEAPOLIS -- Christian Yelich announced his return to the Brewers lineup with authority, just in time for a looming showdown with the rival Cubs.
Yelich hammered a home run through a stiff wind on Sunday afternoon in his first game back from a bout of back tightness, a bright spot in an otherwise disheartening 5-4 loss to the Twins at Target Field. Between the defensive lapses and a 1-for-14 showing with runners in scoring position, it was a less-than-memorable finale to a three-game series the Brewers had every chance to sweep.
Despite that disappointment, they felt good to have their unofficial captain making a difference again.
“I’m not surprised,” said Jake Bauers. “We’ve seen him do it before. We’ve seen him be on the IL a couple of times and not take a rehab assignment, and come right back and have good at-bats and give us a chance to win games. It was awesome to see. It’s awesome to have him back.”
The Brewers missed a chance to sweep despite their first multihomer game this month and their first multihomer road game all season. Bauers was hoping for more, only to see two fly balls with home run characteristics die in the Twins’ outfield for outs because of the same wind that may have hampered Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio at a key moment in the eighth.
Despite those frustrations, the Brewers head into their first meeting with the Cubs in relatively good shape thanks to left-hander Robert Gasser’s bounceback from a 40-pitch first inning and the return of Yelich, who’d hoped to have this sort of impact when he was activated from the injured list last week following a five-week absence for a groin injury.
Instead, Yelich felt his back begin to tighten between the time the Brewers activated him from the IL and his first at-bat of an 0-for-4 night against the Padres on Tuesday. Yelich was out of the lineup the next night, and didn’t return to action until Sunday afternoon, when he grounded out in his first two at-bats before connecting in the fifth against Twins starter Bailey Ober.
It was Yelich’s first home run since he hit his first career pinch-hit home run against the White Sox on March 29, a two-out, two-strike, three-run shot that capped an eighth-inning comeback and helped complete a season-opening sweep. Two weeks later, Yelich injured his groin in a game against the Nationals and landed on the IL on April 14.
“It’s great to see Yeli back swinging it,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “He’s closer to really being on time and on it.”
Garrett Mitchell also homered for Milwaukee in a seesaw game that began with Gasser, up from Triple-A Nashville for his season debut with the Brewers, slogging through a 40-pitch inning in which the Twins hit 11 pitches foul – including six two-strike pitches to Royce Lewis. Gasser managed to strike out Lewis to limit the damage to one run, then got through three more innings to spare the bullpen from overuse going into Monday’s series opener in Chicago.
Even those subsequent innings left room for improvement. In all, Gasser hit three batters, walked two and failed to back up home plate on shortstop Joey Ortiz’s throwing error in the third inning, allowing an extra Twins run to score on a day every run was a difference-maker.
“I thought the play was going to be at third,” Gasser said. “I crossed over [into foul ground] the wrong way and wasn’t in the right spot. That’s on me.”
“Five free bases in four innings, that’s not it,” Murphy said. “He knows better, and hopefully it’ll be better.”
Brewers hitters also could have been better. They were 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position before Bauers’ run-scoring single in the ninth made it a one-run game, and finished 1-for-14 when Sal Frelick fouled out to end the game.
It was a particularly tough day for Chourio, who missed a trio of two-out chances with runners in scoring position, then had a chance for a slick, sliding catch in center field in the eighth only to let the baseball pop out of his glove for a Luke Keaschall triple. Keaschall scored an insurance run that wound up being the game-winner.
“Those are the [games] you regret,” Murphy said. “You had a chance to win. You had a chance to break it open at some point, but we never got that big hit.”
Next stop, Wrigley Field for a big series against the Brewers’ chief rival.
“I think we’re catching our rhythm a little bit, playing a lot better baseball as of late,” Bauers said. “Going into Wrigley, especially after the postseason last year, I’m not going to stand here and tell you it’s not a big series.”