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A slight tweak at the plate made earlier this week is already paying off for Christian Yelich

Brewers leftfielder Christian Yelich delivers an RBI single against the Red Sox during the seventh inning Friday night.
Brewers leftfielder Christian Yelich delivers an RBI single against the Red Sox during the seventh inning Friday night.

BOSTON – Three games do not a trend make.

But the immediate returns on a slight tweak made at the plate by Christian Yelich earlier this week were viewed as positive by the Milwaukee Brewers leftfielder.

Employing a new toe tap, Yelich doubled twice in a victory over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday – his first game with multiple extra-base hits since cycling at Cincinnati on May 11 – and singled the following afternoon.

Then on Friday night in the team's return to Fenway Park, Yelich collected two more hits, including a double and then a go-ahead single with two outs in the seventh to help key a 4-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox.

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Yelich, who was hitting .228 and slugging just .351 for the month of July, arrived at American Family Field before that first Twins game with no concrete plans to revamp anything and working off some insight from an unnamed teammate whose input he values.

“I figured, let’s just try some stuff,” Yelich explained before the game Friday. “I started off a tee by myself. I was playing with it to see if it could work. I knew I wanted to come up with something different. I’d had enough of what I was doing. It wasn’t fun sucking every night, so I was going to come up with something different to see if we could have better results.

“I didn’t really know what it was going to be, but I felt like that was similar – since I had a leg kick, I’ve always had a movement for timing – and I had to do something to get that rhythm, otherwise it wasn’t going to work. A no-stride, I don’t think that would have worked for me.

“I have some natural gifts as a hitter that I didn’t want to lose – when I’m good. I feel like this still allows me to accomplish that while being a little more consistent.

“That’s what I’m trying for.”

Indeed, Yelich has had spells of success this season but nothing he’s been able to sustain for the long term.

He entered Friday batting .254 with eight home runs and 34 runs batted in to go with a .744 OPS. Yelich does continue to hit the ball hard, as evidenced by the 117.2-mph triple he smoked against the Colorado Rockies last weekend (eighth-hardest-hit ball in the major leagues at that point).

The problem is most of the time the ball has been on the ground, with his rate of 57.9% at its highest point since 2016.

“For whatever reason, I just can’t get my body to do what I want it to do,” Yelich said. “Bad habit-wise or whatever, it’s just not – the movement patterns and the sequencing are just not the same. I don’t know why that is. No clue. Nobody can figure it out. I can’t figure it out.

“So, I figured I would try something new to see if I could make things simpler and try and have a little bit more success and consistency.”

These sorts of in-season tweaks are par for the course for most hitters, manager Craig Counsell said.

“Hitters are doing this a lot. I think in this case we're able to see the adjustment,” he said. “That stuff's going on every day, frankly, with every hitter. It's part of adjusting in the big leagues.

“Trying to get a feel, trying to get something you can be consistent with – that's what the hitters are all looking for.”

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Getting comfortable with something new, even as small as a toe tap, can take a while.

Yelich said he plans on seeing this current change through.

“I think it’s something I’m going to stick with,” he said. “It’s been a little bit more comfortable than I was probably anticipating, because when you change your entire timing mechanism, your pitch recognition and all of that stuff can be a little tough. But I’ve actually felt pretty good with it. Better than I thought.

“I thought it was going to be a little bit of a zoo for a couple of weeks, honestly. I’ll try to get more comfortable. I think there’s an adjustment period and something I’ll have to feel through; what’s comfortable, what’s not. What do I want to do? Just ad-lib on the fly, maybe.

“But it’s been good so far.”

On Friday, Yelich struck out his first two times up before rifling a double to left to lead off the sixth. He came in two score two batters later with the first run of the game.

His best work came in the seventh. With Tyrone Taylor on third after tripling with two outs and the game tied, 1-1, Yelich greeted Boston reliever Ryan Brasier by lining his 98-mph fastball the other way to score Taylor and put Milwaukee up for good.

With 69 starts in left field and another 23 at designated hitter, Yelich is tied for the team lead in games played with 95 and paces the Brewers in hits (91), runs (64), walks (54) and stolen bases (13 for 13).

Since being moved to the leadoff spot June 8, Yelich is batting .296 with three homers, 14 RBI and an on-base percentage of over .400.

“I love it there,” he said. “I’ll stay there as long as they’ll have me. It feels good to me. Like I told you guys at first, I don’t put too much thought in it. But I like it. I like hitting in front of those guys. I feel like I still do a pretty good job of getting on base at a good clip and provide run scoring opportunities for our team and the guys behind me.”

Now, to see if the toe tap can help unlock some of the old MVP-level Yelich from 2018 and 2019. Even a slight improvement in terms of driving the ball could make a big difference for this offense.

“I’ve made adjustments and became a really good player before. I think this is another of those times,” he said. “A lot of people hit like that; why couldn’t I do the same thing?  You’ve just got to adjust. That’s part of it. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work and you come up with something new.

“For now, I’m working with Connor (Dawson) or Ozzie (Timmons), trying to make this thing as consistent as possible and go from there.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Slight tweak at plate already paying off for Brewers' Christian Yelich