Christian Yelich homers again, and the other coolest things from MLB last night

Thomas Schlarp

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Christian Yelich homers again, and the other coolest things from MLB last night image

The Brewers and Dodgers on Friday gave baseball fans everything they could possibly hope to see in an October matchup. A Christian Yelich home run, a superstar pitcher vs. a superstar hitter in a pivotal moment and a late home run to break a deadlock evoked memories of last year's winner-take-all NLCS Game 7 for the right to play in the World Series. 

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Kike' Hernandez's three-run homer off Josh Hader in the eighth inning helped send the Brewers home losers again as Los Angeles held on to win 5-3. The Dodgers have taken the first two games of the four-game weekend set.

Hernandez is the first batter ever to go deep against Hader on an 0-2 pitch.

Yelich's record-setting pace, a pair of back-to-back homers, a curtain call in a player's first career at-bat and a couple of alarming pitcher stat lines were the coolest things from Friday baseball.

This was a thing, too: 

4. Taxing day on the mound

Monday may have been the deadline to file taxes, but the arms of Madison Bumgarner and Drew Smyly paid a heavy price Friday.

MadBum needed 38 pitches to get through the first inning as he allowed four runs and four hits to the Pirates. He settled down to allow just one hit over the next 11 batters, but Pittsburgh still beat the Giants 4-1.

Bumgarner's bad inning was only outdone by Texas' Drew Smyly.

Smyly somehow managed to strike out eight Houston batters before the fourth inning was over, but in doing so, he became the seventh Rangers pitcher to ever throw over 100 pitches in less than four innings.

3. Welcome to the Show

St. Louis' Lane Thomas hit an opposite-field home run in his first career MLB at-bat. Thomas and the Cardinals couldn't scrape together a win over the Mets, but Thomas did get a curtain call.

Thomas was a fifth-round draft pick by the Blue Jays in 2014 and was recalled to the majors Wednesday after Harrison Bader was placed on the 10-day injured list.

2. Back-to-back jacks (plural)

If one set of back-to-back home runs is cool, then two are even cooler. Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman got the party started in the first inning of Houston's 7-2 win over Texas.

Altuve has hit seven homers in his last nine games and has eight for the season. He hit 13 all of last year.

Boston's Mookie Betts and Mitch Moreland joined the back-to-back club shortly after with a pair of home runs in the eighth inning of the Red Sox's 6-4 victory over Tampa Bay.

Moreland's sixth jack of the season surprisingly leads all Red Sox hitters, which could explain in part why Boston finds itself staring up at the other four teams in the AL East.

1. Yelich won't slow down

Christian Yelich needed all of one plate appearance Friday to claim the status of MLB's home run leader from Kris Davis and Cody Bellinger.

His 11th home run of the season tied Yelich with Eric Thames for the most home runs in Brewers history in March and April. The good news for Yelich is that he still has 10 more games this month to break the record.

Thomas Schlarp