Milwaukee Brewers

Yelich, Braun powering Brewers to best start since 2014

Published Apr. 8, 2019 5:38 p.m. ET

A pair of MVPs are powering the Milwaukee Brewers to their best start in half a decade.

Christian Yelich, the reigning NL MVP, and Ryan Braun, who won the award in 2011, have been among the league's most-productive hitters through 10 games.

Yelich is tied for third in the majors with 13 RBI, while Braun is tied for fifth with 12 heading into a three-game series with the Los Angeles Angels that begins Monday night.

Milwaukee, meanwhile, is 8-2, its best 10-game start since 2014, the last time a Brewers squad won eight of its first 10.

Unfortunately for the Brewers, another former MVP is off to a hot start of his own, and he'll be in the opposite dugout for the next few nights.

Angels star Mike Trout leads the majors with a 1.581 OPS and ranks fifth with 12 RBI.

That hasn't translated to the same level of success for the Angels, who dropped a three-game series to the Oakland A's and a two-game set with the Seattle Mariners, before sweeping the Texas Rangers over the weekend.

The Brewers are coming off a 2-1 series win over the Cubs that saw Milwaukee score a combined 25 runs.

They've been particularly effective with runners in scoring position.

The Brewers lead the league with a 1.016 OPS with RISP, well about the major-league average of .771, and behind only the Philadelphia Phillies (1.035) and Arizona Diamondbacks (1.112).

Other notes:

-- The Angels have 224 wins since interleague play began in 1997, behind only the New York Yankees (237) and Boston Red Sox (244).

-- However, they struggled to score against NL teams last season, posting just 77 runs in interleague games, fourth-fewest in the majors.

-- Milwaukee starter Jhoulys Chacin has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 13 consecutive starts, the third-longest such streak for a Brewers pitcher since the beginning of 2017.

Statistics courtesy of Sportradar