Milwaukee Brewers: Christian Yelich and Jeremy Jeffress Named Players of the Month
![MILWAUKEE, WI - APRIL 06: Jeremy Jeffress #32 of the Milwaukee Brewers throws a pitch during the sixth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Miller Park on April 6, 2018 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_752,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/https-3A-2F-2Freviewingthebrew-com-2Fwp-content-2Fuploads-2Fgetty-images-2F2018-2F05-2F942823636-850x560-15d6f7a044df7fc0ec2911d48ab1201a.jpg)
The Milwaukee Brewers had a very successful month of May. A big reason for that is the performance of Christian Yelich and Jeremy Jeffress. Both earned players of the month awards for May.
Christian Yelich seems to have adapted very well to his new team. While Jeremy Jeffress is right back at home and putting up historic numbers out of this incredible Milwaukee Brewers bullpen.
What did Yelich do to win the award?
Starting with Yelich, he had an overall solid month hitting out of the two spot in the lineup. He played in 27 total games posting a .387 OBP, .541 SLG with 17 RBI, 22 runs scored and five home runs. This includes a game tying bomb off the Miller Park scoreboard in the last game of the month.
Yelich was a bit up and down through the month of April, but it looks like he has found his groove. If Yelich is consistently getting on base throughout the season and scoring runs off the big hits from the middle of the lineup, this team will continue to score a ton of runs.
How did Jeffress perform in May?
Now to Jeffress, he continued his incredible beginning to the season with a crazy good month. Jeffress pitched in 13 games with a total of 15 innings pitched. In those 15 innings he had 13 strikeouts and a 0.60 ERA. He stranded all eight runners he inherited and had three saves.
Jeffress has been the unsung hero of the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen. He has just now started to get a little recognition. Josh Hader has gotten plenty of attention, but Jeffress is putting up better than All-Star caliber numbers on the season. Jeffress has been the king of getting out of jams. He now works situations where he gets two inning saves or setting up for the closer.
The Brewers now have several quality relievers who can all go multiple innings in clutch situations. Hader cannot work every day, but even when he’s not available, the Brewers have other guys who can step in. This is probably the biggest reason why the Milwaukee Brewers are in first place.
Will their success continue?
Through the ups and downs of the Milwaukee Brewers start to the year, the bullpen for the most part has remained steady. Even when they got swept in a four game series by the Cubs, the pitching did everything that was needed to win all four of those games. It was just a cold series for the bats.
Next: Putting Twitter Into Perspective
Yelich was expected to be, and is a star player on this team. The Milwaukee Brewers will continue to expect big things out of their #2 hitter and gold glove caliber outfielder. On the other side, Jeffress was expected to have a key role, but this success of his is unprecedented. The Brewers hope he will continue on this pace of bullpen greatness.