ATLANTA – Christian Yelich will need time to process what happened in 2021, both individually and collectively. One thing he did make clear, though, after he missed a Will Smith slider for the Brewers’ final out of the season.
“I understand that I have to play better,” Yelich confessed.
With a disappointed face, after the defeat of the **Brewers 5-4** Against the Braves in Game 4 of the NL Division Series on Tuesday, Yelich spoke about the abrupt end of the season for a team that won 95 games in the regular season in which the gunner hit .248 /. 362 / .373 – his batting average (excluding the .205 he had in the shortened 2020 season) and lowest slugging of his career. He barely hit a home run since Aug. 21.
“I had several big shifts throughout the year and in the postseason, and well, I came up short,” Yelich said. “It is so. It’s part of the game. You have to assume everything and move on ”.
“There are good and bad moments. We have to keep going”.
Yelich will be entering the first year of a seven-season contract extension in 2022, which he signed in March 2020, just days after the baseball world was put on hiatus due to COVID-19. By then, Yelich was coming off two impressive seasons with the Brewers, including 2018, in which he was named the NL’s Most Valuable Player, and in 2019, in which he finished second, despite suffering an injury. in September they left him out for the rest of the season.
With such an agreement, Yelich’s salary will jump to $ 26 million in 2022.
The patrolman was asked how long it will take to overcome the elimination of the Brewers.
“A while,” Yelich confessed. “There are many things that go through your head.”
The Brewers’ offense plummeted in mid-September and was unable to revive in the series against the Braves. In Game 4, Yelich went 5-1 with three strikeouts, including a three-pitch shift off Smith to end the game.
With one man on base, representing the tying run in the ninth, Smith threw three straight sliders at Yelich. The first one let it pass for the first strike, the second he missed with a blank swing, and the third was a called strike.
Considering the Brewers entered the postseason with perhaps their best pitching staff, did this elimination hurt more?
“I think every year that you qualify you have a good chance,” Yelich said. “We just didn’t play well enough to advance. Credit to them. They played a great series, that’s why they advanced ”.
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