Pat Murphy asks the fans to support Yelich as he drops down in the order.

This is probably because IFC has been running the American Pie movies non-stop, but this speech from Murph last night reminded me of the scene in American Pie 2 where the crowd at band camp rallies behind “Petey” (2:21 mark):

Related: I don’t think people fully understand how important the first American Pie was to people in my age range. It was our generation’s Animal House. I got the unrated version of American Pie on VHS in 1999 and I’m pretty sure that summer I only watched that movie and Monday Night Raw. And honestly? All of the sequels are solid. American Pie 2 is good, American Wedding is good, even the Reunion one they came out with was funny. Yeah, in hindsight there were some very problematic scenes by today’s standards (Jim is probably doing 5-7 years for streaming Nadia on a webcam to the entire school), but it was a different time.

Anyway, where were we?

Ah, yes, Christian Yelich is having a worse offensive season than Joey Ortiz.

Not great! Last night Pat Murphy finally had to slide him down in the lineup to the #7 spot in the order, but when Jake Bauers was a late scratch before first pitch with abdominal soreness (diarrhea lettuce?), he moved back up to #5.

The bottom line: He’s pretty much been slumping since early July, and he wasn’t even really having that great of a season before that.

Which led to Murphy’s comments both pre and post game last night. And Murphy’s points are mostly correct. Obviously Yeli has been a massive part of this franchise since they acquired him in 2018. Back-to-back batting titles in 2018 and 2019, should have won back-to-back MVP’s in 2018 and 2019. And even with that kneecap injury in early September of 2019, that season is arguably one of the greatest offensive seasons in franchise history. 2020 was ‘meh,’ 2021 and 2022 weren’t great either, but 2023-2025 were mostly All Star caliber.

For whatever reason though, he just looks lost this year. Bat speed is slow, doesn’t look like he’s seeing the ball very well, and when he does make solid contact it almost always feels like it’s right at someone, or a foul ball.

But I do agree with Murph, he’s earned the right to try and get it turned around, albeit in a much lower spot in the batting order. And even though they’ve got the best record in baseball, it feels like they’re going to need Yeli to look somewhat close to himself if they’re going to make an actual run at this thing.

So I would expect that he’s going to get a healthy ovation tonight as he steps in for his first at-bat. Right before he pounds the ball into the ground on the infield.

PS: Dustin May had his intro press conference yesterday as well, and I’ve never been more “in” on a guy after seeing one single picture:

A “SHOCK” of red hair, as they say. This guy is going 7-1 with a 1.95 ERA the rest of the season.