“I remember I was staying late,” Shildt said. “He's always been a good player, and then you see him carry that team. … I appreciate his bat and his talent.”

The Brewers, though, are suddenly struggling. They lost both Monday and Tuesday at Busch, mustering only one hit on Monday. On Sunday, they lost 16-8 at Washington, after winning on Saturday by the score of 15-14. Milwaukee (64-62) is four games back of first place St. Louis (67-57). The Cubs (67-58) are ½ games out of first.

“We've got a lot of talented players,” an optimistic Yelich said, “so it's always possible for us to have those breakout games, when everything starts clicking. So hopefully we'll see more of that here down the stretch.”

As for the possibility of the traditional triple crown, Yelich is second with 41 homers (Cody Bellinger has 42) and seventh with 89 RBIs. Yelich leads the league in OPS (1.123). The last NL player to finish with an OPS that high was 2010 league-leader Joey Votto (1.024). In all of Albert Pujols' great seasons, the highest OPS he ever tallied for the Cardinals was 1.114 in 2008.