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Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Staff WriterOct 2, 2024, 10:38 PM ET
- Sports reporter, Kansas City Star, 2002-09
- Writer, Baseball, Baseball Prospectus
- Co-author, Pro Basketball Prospectus
- Member, Baseball Writers Association of America
- Member, Professional Basketball Writers Association
MILWAUKEE — Maybe Brewers phenom Jackson Chourio is simply too young to know the history he was overcoming — and making — Wednesday night.
Twice, Chourio revved up an American Family Field crowd into a dervish with opposite-field homers, one to lead off the Brewers’ first inning and the other to tie the score to start the eighth, as Milwaukee overcame a late deficit to beat the New York Mets 5-3 and set up a decisive Game 3 in the National League Wild Card Series on Thursday.
“Yeah, that’s pretty special,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said, summing up his young star’s performance. “Yeah, pretty special.”
Chourios’ eighth-inning blast off Mets right-hander Phil Maton rocketed off his bat at 105 mph and clanked off the facade above the right-field bullpen, sending a nervous home crowd into a frenzy.
“I think the adrenaline is still getting to me,” Chourio said after the game through an interpreter. “I think I still feel the adrenaline there. It was a very special moment for me, and it’s one I’m going to look back on and remember for the rest of my life.”
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An even larger celebration kicked off moments later when Garrett Mitchell, who entered the game earlier as a pinch runner only to be thrown out stealing, lined a Maton pitch that scraped the top of the right-field fence for a two-run, go-ahead homer.
“I knew I hit it well and felt like, as I was kind of running down the base, I was kind of like, ‘Go, go, go, go,'” Mitchell said. “Right when it hit the top of the fence, that’s when I knew.”
The Brewers have suffered postseason disappointments throughout their history. As a franchise that began as the Seattle Pilots in 1969 before moving to Milwaukee the next season, the Brewers are only one of five extant franchises without a World Series title. They haven’t won a pennant since 1982 despite earning their sixth playoff spot in the last seven seasons this year.
On top of that, with the Brewers trailing 3-2 into the late innings of Game 2, another bad historical statistic became relevant: They had not won a playoff game in which they trailed entering the seventh inning since those 1982 pennant winners did it. Even more: The last 39 playoff teams that entered the eighth with the lead in a potential clincher finished off the win.
Two swings changed all of it, and flipped the anxious energy of a gathering convinced they were about to watch the onset of another October heartbreak.
Describing what he saw rounding the bases after his homer, Mitchell said, “The first thought is looking around, seeing how excited the fans are. They’re a big part of this, too, like the energy that they’re bringing.
“After getting the second and going home, it’s like let’s go celebrate with the team. They’re all fired up. It’s an exciting time.”
Chourio, at 20 the youngest player in the majors this year, continues to emerge as one of baseball’s brightest breakout stars. His two homers made him the second-youngest player with a multihomer game in the postseason (the Braves‘ Andruw Jones, 19, in the 1996 World Series was younger). He became the first Brewer to homer more than once in a playoff game. And he became the first player to have a leadoff homer and a tying homer in the eighth inning or later of the same playoff game.
Chourio hit .275 during his first season with 21 homers, 79 RBIs and 22 steals, all while playing Gold Glove-level defense in center field. His manager is running out of superlatives.
“Chourio, oof,” Murphy said before pausing, perhaps searching for something fresh to say about a player he has been asked about so often. All he could do was shake his head and add, “Two opposite-field bombs.”
Though Chourio’s blossoming brilliance dominated the postgame chatter, there was a lot of sentiment for Mitchell, part of the Brewers’ impressive young core of position players but one who has suffered through several major injuries during the early stages of his big league career.
“You’d never know he’s been through that adversity because he just doesn’t show it to you,” Murphy said. “He just comes ready to play. He’s got a smile on his face. He’s ready to play every day. The attitude gets him through it.”
Mitchell became the first Brewer since Hall of Famer Paul Molitor with a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning or later of a postseason game. Molitor did it in 1981. And that’s part of what makes this playoff run so different for the franchise and those who packed in to watch them Wednesday: These players are adding chapters to a history they are far too young to have experienced themselves.
“The energy that was in that stadium, that whole eighth inning, you felt it,” Mitchell said. “It was like they were just waiting for something to erupt. They’re in it with us, and we’re going to continue to need their support tomorrow and have a packed house. So hopefully they’ll bring it again.”
