NL DIVISION SERIES: CUBS VS BREWERS

October 9, 2025

Christian Yelich

Wrigley Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Pregame 4 Press Conference

Q. Yelly, you have Freddy going tonight; how important do you think he is with the makeup of the rest of the staff right now to what you're trying to do here?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Yeah, obviously we're not full strength as a pitching staff, especially a starting pitching staff, so Freddy has been super reliable for us, and we like our chances when he's out there.

He's done it for a long time for us in a lot of big games. I think he'll be just fine tonight.

Q. You've seen Boyd a few times now. How important is that, and what can you take from what you did see in Game 1 and apply it to tonight?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: I don't know if there's anything from Game 1 that really carries over. We're divisional opponents so they've faced us a lot, we've faced them a lot. The familiarity is there on both sides for the hitters and the pitchers.

It's just about executing, and for us just putting together good at-bats and making sure that we're doing what we want to do.

Q. I believe last night was you guys' first chance to clinch a series since probably that Wild Card in 2019. Did the game, did anything leading up to it feel any different than any of the other plenty of playoff experiences and games that you've had?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Not really. I don't think anybody was thinking about, like, oh, we can clinch today. You still need to play well and you need to do the things that you need to do to win, and we didn't do that.

We did some good stuff last night, but for the most part, we didn't do what we needed to do to win a game, and whether it's a playoff game or a regular season game or any kind of game, you do that kind of stuff, it's going to be tough on you. It's a credit to our guys that we put ourselves in a position to kind of dig ourselves out of that hole.

And we were one swing away from taking the lead multiple times. That's the bright spot you can take from it, but we kind of felt like, hey, we just didn't do what we were supposed to do last night.

Q. If we can go back to Freddy for a second, you've been with the Brewers for the entirety of his tenure. Can you speak to kind of the evolution of him as a player, as a person, as a competitor as you've seen him go from young kid who only threw nothing but fastballs to a true pitcher who can affect games in a positive way for you?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Yeah, I think he's gotten better each year. I think all seven, eight years we've played together, he's continued to get better.

Like you said, when he first came up, he was a super young kid, baby faced. He had a really good fastball that at the time people couldn't really explain it. They just knew it was a really good fastball.

I remember I was playing center field for his debut in Colorado and you could tell it was special then. Each year he's continued to want to get better and get better, and you can see the confidence grow.

He's been an anchor for our pitching staff the last however many years, been an All-Star a few times, pitched in a ton of big games.

He's done a great job.

Q. Since you guys acquired Vaughn he's been productive for you guys. What's stood out to you about him as a hitter and as a teammate since joining you guys and going on this run with you guys?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: I think he just fits our group. Just from day one, he came in and it just seemed like he was comfortable and we were comfortable with him. We have a really good clubhouse, and guys are pretty loose and make everybody feel at home pretty quickly.

I think that's one of our strengths where everybody is just, hey, I'm going to come in and just contribute in any way possible to try and win a game. Nobody really comes in and says, hey, you have to be the guy; we're solely depending on you for wins and offense and stuff like that. It's just, hey, do your role, whatever situation the game finds you in, try to execute it to the best of your ability.

He obviously got really hot when he first came over and had some success early and was able to ride that out.

He fits us really well, and we're definitely glad to have him.

Q. I'm wondering, how do you find -- are you pretty much well adjusted to the DH routine now, and do you find DHing any different in the playoffs when you're sitting for a bit longer before getting to the plate, sitting in that kind of atmosphere?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Not really. I think we've treated every game the same, whether it was a playoff game or a regular season game. As players and as a team, we've kept the same routine, and I've kept the same routine.

I think maybe at the beginning of the year there's a little bit of an adjustment period because I did it before obviously in the past but I didn't do it as much.

In years past it was kind of just like a day off without being a day off, and this year I wanted to find a good routine to where you felt like you were still involved in the game and you're in the flow of the game.

Now I'm used to it and it's fine. It's something that I don't even think about. I have a good routine and feel comfortable with it, whether it's regular season, postseason, anything like that.

Q. I don't think we got a chance to ask you about the pop-up in the first inning yesterday. You were on second for that, right?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Yeah.

Q. What did you see happening on that play, and were you taking off thinking it was infield fly, or did you know you had to advance?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Well, I didn't hear any of the umpires call infield fly. I saw them kind of lose it off the bat and was kind of looking around at everybody to see what was happening around me, and both Dansby and Nico kind of left second base to go try to help out. I'm not sure what Matt did. I think he kind of stayed by the bag.

But kind of saw that that ball was going to fall and nobody was around it, so I was kind of shuffling off with it, and when it fell, I just went to third base. I knew they didn't call infield fly so I was like, well, probably supposed to run right here.

Even if it was infield fly, I still was going to advance because I kind of just saw the ball was going to drop. I think Brice was in a tougher position because it was all converging around him so he has to stay next to the bag because if somebody catches it they can just flip it over.

It was a little bit harder on him than it was for me because no matter how the play turned out I was going to be fine because whether it was infield fly or not, I was still going to be able to advance and be fine, but he was in a tough spot.

We talk about that stuff a lot. We have a lot of baserunning type discussions every day as hitters, and we draw from plays from other teams throughout the league that have happened that night or that day and like weird odd things that you're like, hey, this didn't show up for us, but it could potentially at some point; let's talk through this and what we should do and shouldn't do.

That just happened to be one that we didn't. We never have. But we've talked about the infield fly rule before these guys did it to somebody earlier in the year where they let the ball drop and everybody took off running, and just as a refresher to make sure everybody is on the same page.

But we do that with situations all across the board because we have a young team and it's good to talk baseball sometimes. That helps slow the game down. When something happens you're not taken by surprise so you don't have to think on the floor, like I've seen this before, I know what I'm supposed to do.

But yeah, that was one that we didn't cover, like what happens if it's an infield fly but nobody calls infield fly because nobody is underneath it. I heard the umpire's explanation to Couns at third base when he was asking, and that's what they gave him.

Q. You mentioned the young team and we talked towards the end of the regular season about how much the young guys contributed to your success in the regular season. How impressed have you been with the guys that have stepped up, so many of them, Jackson, Chad, Miz, in their first postseason, or Jackson's second?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Yeah, we talked about it where the atmosphere is different and there's a little bit more attention on the game, but the game remains the same. There's no new rules or anything.

If you want to be successful and win the game, you still have to do everything you did in the regular season in order to be successful. Last night is a pretty good example of that for us, of like, hey, when we lose, we do this stuff. It showed up, and we lost.

It helps you kind of look at the game as like, all right, it's still the same game. We still have to play this way. My at-bats, my time in the field, when I'm on the bases, it's all still the same principles as the regular season. There's just a little bit more attention on it and there's different atmospheres a little bit.

I think those guys have done a great job of slowing the game down and executing and doing what they need to do, and they've been a big part of our success so far in the playoffs and during the season as well.

Q. What do you think is going to be the key to win the series tonight?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Yeah, we've got to play well. Anticipating a close game, kind of how all of our games went during the regular season here. It was just back and forth, games decided by a couple situations, a couple plays.

They're a great team. They're very talented. We've got a lot of respect for them. They play really good here, so we know that we have to execute well. We have to play clean.

We do that, we always like our chances in any game regardless of who we're playing. If we play well, then we give ourselves a chance, and we'll see what happens.

Q. You have been in other postseasons. Where do you rank Wrigley Field, talking about October atmosphere, and what do you expect for tonight's game with Chicago fans?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Yeah, it was a good atmosphere yesterday. They obviously don't like us here too much, which is fine. We understand.

Yeah, it's fun. You want to play in big games like this. You want to play in these atmospheres. We're division rivals. We've seen a lot of each other over the years in big games. Obviously not really playoff games. We kind of had a little bit of one back in the day.

First time we've squared off in the playoffs together, so there's going to be that added kind of atmosphere and environment. It was fun yesterday. Looking forward to more of the same tonight.

Q. Getting back to Jackson, he's obviously less than 100 percent with the hamstring. How impressed have you been with what he's been able to do dealing with that, and how hard is it to continue to be productive when you have such an important part of your body not functioning the way it's supposed to?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Yeah, he's been great. He was a big part of the first couple games for us in the series. It's just that time of the year. If you can post for the boys, you'll go out there. It's a credit to him for wanting to keep going.

Hopefully some more big things from him tonight. But that's just part of it, part of baseball at the end of the season, especially in October where you just find a way to get yourself out there, and the adrenaline and everything else that kind of comes with these games helps you through it and you kind of feel it after and then do it all again the next day.

Q. You've shared with us your view of the postseason being sort of a lottery. You get in and you play the game and see what happens. What would it mean to move on for this team? Would it release the pressure valve a little bit for those of you who have experienced the way the last couple have gone?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Yeah, obviously it would be great to advance. That's everyone's goal when it starts. There's really not too many of us that have been around or been on teams that have been eliminated from the postseason still because we have so much turnover every year it feels like on our roster.

I don't think anybody feels the pressure of, like, we need to win, we need to win. We've done a really good job of just focusing on the daily of like, hey, we need to play well to win. We obviously want to advance and keep going in the postseason. We think we have a really good team that can do some things.

You start looking at too much of a bigger picture and your focus starts to drift from the immediate and the right now and what you need to do to be successful, then you have divided attention, and that never helps you.

We've done a good job of just locking in on today and tonight and what we need to do and try to block all the other stuff out and go from there.

Like you said, there's a lot of great teams that you play in October, and anything can happen, especially in those short series in three, four, five days.

Hopefully things go our way and we're able to keep going. But we're just focused on what we need to do to be successful tonight and go from there.