Garrett Mitchell’s family reacting to his first hit at Miller Park yesterday is as wholesome as content gets.

Things you absolutely love to see: This. #5 prospect, Garrett Mitchell, finally got the call up to the big club on Saturday morning. He got into the game defensively on Saturday night, but saw his first at-bats yesterday afternoon. And in his second AB at the major league level? A go-ahead two-RBI double. I can’t imagine the nerves a family has watching their kid realize their dream and play in their first major league baseball game, but I would imagine the rush of adrenaline and emotion watching them get their first hit is something special. Pretty cool to see it in real time, and pretty awesome for them to agree to have a big ol’ camera in their faces in that moment.

Side note: I’ve been calling for one of these call-ups for WEEKS. God bless Jonathan Davis, he tried his hardest every single time he got in a game and made some SPECTACULAR plays in centerfield, but he wasn’t it at the plate. For him to be on the big league club for that long when you’ve got Mitchell, Sal Frelick, Esteury Ruiz and Joey Wiemer all raking in Nashville made zero sense. And aside from the pure, ‘we need someone who can put the ball in play,’ aspect of it, it just felt like calling up one of those kids might be a shot of adrenaline for a team that desperately needed just that. A blue-chip prospect who doesn’t know any better injecting some life and enthusiasm into the locker room. Two games in but it feels like Mitchell could be that guy.

Overall a really nice bounce back for the Crew on Saturday and Sunday after one of the more infuriating losses of the season (which is saying something) on Friday night. To only give up two hits to a rebuilding Cubs team and somehow lose 4-3 in extras AT HOME was, as Jackie Chiles would say, the most public yet of our many humiliations. But they recovered and got the series win while maintaining a 1.5 game deficit in the Wild Card race.

Related: How about Christian Yelich over the weekend. 4 hits and a home run on Saturday, 3 hits (honestly could have been 5) and a home run (almost two) on Sunday. Listen, I’ve learned my lesson* about declaring Yeli, ‘back.’ We’ve been teased again and again and again and again. But I will say this: That’s the first time we’ve seen back to back games like that from Yeli since his knee injury in 2019. In 2020 and 2021 and for most of this season, every once in a while you’d get a game where he looked like the Yeli from 2018 or 2019. But then he’d go 2-3 weeks before you’d see it again. Then he’d have a great game, then a month before you’d see it again. On and on and on. Well he legitimately could have had 9 hits in 10 at-bats with 3 home runs in those two games. He was finally waiting back on pitches and elevating the ball. Again, this could all disappear tonight and we might not see it again until September 20th, but for the first time in a LONG time he was able to piggyback great games.

Double Related: Holy moly, Josh Hader. 1/3 of an inning yesterday and gave up 6 runs. The man is broken. It’s really hard to fathom what’s happened to him this season. He didn’t give up a single run until June 7th. He hit the All Star break with a sub-2 ERA and the league leader in saves. He was definitely leaking some oil before the trade deadline, but nothing that we hadn’t seen before. For most of his time in Milwaukee he always had a week or two where he wasn’t locked in, but it always passed. Well he now sports a gentleman’s 25.7 ERA since joining San Diego and has been pulled from the closer role with a 6.5 ERA overall. Absolutely astounding.

And look, Brewer fans are in a weird spot with Hader. I don’t think any of us are actively celebrating what he’s been dealing with, but the fact that the Brewers are trying to chase down San Diego for that final Wild Card spot means that every Hader blow-up does help the Brewers. Plus, any team’s fan base wants to, ‘win the trade.’ When they made the deal it was a shocker and it felt like the Brewers could have gotten a bit more. But with the way Hader is pitching, and the way Ruiz and Gasser have started their careers in the Brewer minor league system, maybe it will ultimately look like a well timed move.

My guess is that Hader will figure it out eventually. But that might not be this season. It wasn’t a secret that his family was dealing with a lot off of the field this season, that combined with a few blow-ups and getting traded away from your friends and teammates only seem to have compounded things. The guy seems like he desperately needs the season to just end.

*Plot twist, I have not learned my lesson. Me in two weeks when Yeli is 1 for his last 25:

PS: Badgers are back this weekend, Packers back next weekend, Bucks training camp starts in a few weeks, cooler weather, I’d say I’m sorry to see summer go but it’s about to be the best time of the year.