Yelich's walkoff grand slam propels the Brewers back to a .500 record

What a game. The Milwaukee Brewers just pulled off a huge momentum win against the Boston Red Sox, capped off by Christian Yelich's first career walkoff home run. But it wasn't just a walkoff homer; it was a walkoff grand slam in the 10th inning. To give you some perspective, it's just the third walkoff grand slam by a Brewer this century, with the other two coming from Daniel Vogelbach (2021) and Ryan Braun (2008).

The game started out as a pitching duel, as Aaron Civale went toe to toe with several Red Sox pitchers by producing five scoreless innings to start the game. The only offense from the Brewers in those first five innings came on singles by Isaac Collins and Brice Turang.

Boston opened the scoring in the top of the 6th inning. Civale allowed a leadoff ground-rule double to Red Sox center fielder Ceddane Rafaela before being pulled for the recently promoted Aaron Ashby. Ashby looked sharp, striking out Jarren Duran and getting Rafael Devers to ground out to the right side. However, Rafaela advanced to third on the ground out, and a wild pitch in the next at-bat allowed him to score (the wild pitch could easily have been called a passed ball as it bounced out of William Contreras' glove).

Late-inning heroics from Christian Yelich give the Brewers the win, bring their record back to .500

The game remained 1-0 in Boston's favor until the bottom of the 9th, when 16-year veteran Aroldis Chapman entered the game for the Red Sox in hopes of closing things out and earning his ninth save of the season. The first batter he faced? Christian Yelich.

Yelich lined a leadoff double down the third base line, and stole third base in the following at-bat while Rhys Hoskins drew a walk. Two batters later, Sal Frelick hit a line drive to center, scoring Yelich and tying the game at one apiece. Despite Caleb Durbin nearly ending the game on a line drive to right field that was caught in diving fashion by Red Sox' right fielder Wilyer Abreu, the game went into extra innings.

In the top of the 10th, Brewers' reliever Grant Anderson allowed a leadoff infield single to old friend Abraham Toro, allowing the automatic runner to advance to third and giving Boston runners on the corners with nobody out. Anderson struck out the next batter, Rafaela, before turning things over to Rob Zastryzny. "Rob Z," as Brewers' manager Pat Murphy referred to him in his postgame press conference, struck out Duran and got Devers to fly out to left field, stranding the two runners and taking the 1-1 tie into the bottom of the 10th.

After a single by Turang that was hit too hard to score, Joey Ortiz, who began the inning on second base, another walk from Jackson Chourio, and an shallow popout from Contreras, Yelich stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded.

On the third pitch of his at-bat, Yelich sent a hanging slider from Liam Hendricks 400 feet to right-center field, giving the Brewers their third-straight win. It's the first walkoff home run in Yelich's 13-year MLB career, and it could very well be the spark that this team needs to turn things around.

The Brewers go for a huge series sweep tomorrow afternoon, with their ace, Freddy Peralta, on the mound. First pitch is set for 12:10 p.m. CT.