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Christian Yelich ties MLB record with homer in fourth straight game to start season

Liz Roscher
Staff writer
Christian Yelich has been hammering home runs at a historic pace. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Christian Yelich has been hammering home runs at a historic pace. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

Anyone still think Christian Yelich’s breakout season was just a fluke? Because we’re just four days into the MLB season and the reigning National League MVP is already staking his claim to the 2019 MVP award.

Yelich, the Milwaukee Brewers’ right fielder, has tied a major league record by hitting a home run in each of his team’s first four games of the season.

Yelich’s record-tying home run came in the first inning of Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals. Yelich hit an absolute bomb off of starter Michael Wacha on just the second pitch he saw.

Yowza. And that’s after hitting a first-inning homer off of Dakota Hudson on Saturday, an eighth-inning jack off of reliever Andrew Miller on Friday, and a third-inning blast off Cardinals opening day starter Miles Mikolas. That’s a lot of homers in a short time, and it looks like Yelich’s teammates might be just a little bit tired of congratulating him.

Yelich is just the sixth player in MLB history to homer in each of his team’s first four games. Willie Mays did it in 1971, Mark McGwire did it in 1998, Nelson Cruz in 2011, Chris Davis in 2013, and Trevor Story in 2016.

Being next to legends like Mays and McGwire in the record books is an incredible accomplishment, but if Yelich hits another one in the Brewers’ next game, he’ll stand alone with the record for home runs hit in consecutive games to start the season.

Can he do it? The Brewers are facing the Cincinnati Reds on Monday, with Tanner Roark on the mound. Roark gave up 24 homers last year, on top of a 4.34 ERA. Yelich has already homered off several of the Cardinals’ best pitchers, so he has a chance against Roark. Will he make history? We’ll have to wait until Monday at 6:40pm ET to find out.

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