Jackson Chourio appeared again at the decisive moment. The Milwaukee Brewers outfielder singled with two outs in the ninth inning to leave the San Diego Padres 4-3 and give his team a 2-0 lead in the National League Division Series.
Milwaukee entered the final inning down 3-2 against star closer Mason Miller, who was working his second inning after retiring all three batters he faced in the eighth in order.
Christian Yelich started the comeback with a walk and advanced to second base after an out by Garrett Mitchell. Miller then issued another walk to Sal Frelick and, although he managed to retire Andrew Vaughn with a fly ball to center field, he failed again against Gary Sánchez, who drew another walk to load the bases.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Chourio took center stage. The Venezuelan, just 22 years old, withstood a 104 mph pitch before hitting the decisive hit against a 102 mph four-seam fastball that stayed too long in the center of the plate.
“He’s one of those players. He’s super talented, super gifted, his hands are fast. He can do whatever he wants on a baseball field,” Yelich said after the game.
For Miller, the loss was especially painful. “Terrible. I didn’t do my job today,” acknowledged the San Diego closer, who admitted that the intentional walk to the bases loaded ended up being decisive.
The hit made Chourio the third-youngest player in postseason history to get a walk-off hit. Edgar Rentería is the only younger player to do so, with two such hits during the 1997 postseason.
The Brewers will now travel to San Diego for Game 3 of the series on Tuesday. Dustin May will be the starter for Milwaukee, while Nick Pivetta will take the mound for the Padres.
History largely favors Milwaukee: teams that have taken a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five playoff series have ended up advancing 83 of the previous 93 times.
Atlanta evens its series against Los Angeles
In the other National League Division Series, the Atlanta Braves defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 to tie the matchup at 1-1.
Michael Harris II led Atlanta’s attack with three hits and was one home run shy of completing the cycle.
Six Braves pitchers combined to allow just two runs. Raisel Iglesias got the save by retiring Josue De Paula to close the match.
Dodgers starter Blake Snell was only able to work 3.2 innings. For Atlanta, Ray Kerr shined again in the postseason by allowing two hits and striking out four batters in 2.2 innings.
Rookie Didier Fuentes also had a standout performance, pitching 3.2 innings and allowing one run. His only damage came in the ninth inning, when Max Muncy hit a two-out home run.
Freddie Freeman had driven in Los Angeles’ other run with a solo home run in the fourth inning. The Dodgers also finished 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
The third game of this series will be played on Tuesday in Atlanta, with Chris Sale announced as the starter for the Braves and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the Dodgers.
