Christian Yelich can’t buy a hit right now.
After another 0-for-5 night with 3 strikeouts in Wednesday night’s series finale in Pittsbugh, the former MVP is now 1-for-27 to start the season, striking out 12 times.
It’s clear his timing is off right now, and it likely doesn’t help that the last week is the first truly competitive pitching he’s faced since early September of last year. On top of the high whiff rate — his current 42.9% K% is more than twice as high as last year’s 20.2% — he’s not hitting the ball hard when he is making contact, with an average exit velocity of 89 mph much lower than his 93.