MILWAUKEE — More than 41,000 Brewers fans had little to celebrate going into the ninth inning of Game 2 of the NLDS on Sunday. They were probably frustrated most of the game. For eight innings, their Brewers had looked unrecognizable. Eight innings of sloppy baseball, including three errors and two unearned runs, combined with a lack of offense had the Brewers on the brink of losing their first game of this postseason to the San Diego Padres. And against MLB’s best and most intimidating closer, Mason Miller, things looked grim.
Then the Brewers remembered who they are. It might’ve taken 8 2/3 innings, but in their 4-3 walk-off victory over the Padres in Game 2, they gave a sellout crowd at American Family Field a reason to cheer and a game they’ll never forget.
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“One of my favorite games I’ve been a part of,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “And what’s most gratifying to see is how many of our great fans came out to see that one. Just happy for the club, happy for the city that they got to witness something so special.”
But let’s back up. Before Milwaukee could attempt to walk off San Diego, it first had to tie the game against Miller after entering the ninth down 3-2. And that required baserunners, which Miller didn’t yield in the eighth inning when he first appeared in Sunday’s game. San Diego had allowed very little traffic, and the Brewers had mustered just four hits prior to the ninth. Newly minted Brewers captain Christian Yelich worked a five-pitch walk against Miller to put the tying run on first base with one out.
Of course, one at-bat doesn’t make for a comeback against the game’s best reliever. But for a team like the Brewers, who have always believed as an organization that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, the mindset was to keep the line moving.
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“Just grind, man. Just find a way to get on there,” Yelich said afterward. “Doesn’t matter if it’s a walk or a hit. We just want some traffic in that inning there, and just see what happens.”
Yelich handed the baton to Sal Frelick, who fell behind in the count 1-2, a place no hitter wants to be. But then the Brewers’ right fielder buckled down, taking three straight Miller pitches to draw another walk.
“Guys like that don’t give up multiple hits in innings very often,” Frelick said. “He was tasked with six outs today, so wanted to kind of get pressure on him, see if we could get some guys on.”
Following an Andrew Vaughn flyout for the second out, arguably the biggest at-bat of the ninth came from catcher Gary Sánchez, who pinch hit for David Hamilton. Sánchez is on the Brewers’ NLDS roster for moments like this — opportunities for a big swing. Just like his teammates, the veteran wasn’t necessarily looking for a three-run shot.
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Like Yelich and Frelick before him, Sánchez was able to grind and put together another tough at-bat against Miller. After working the count full, he drew the Brewers’ third walk of the inning.
“He’s the best in the game,” first baseman Jake Bauers said of Miller before the series. “I think the mentality is try to have a good at-bat. Whatever happens after that is whatever happens.”
What happened is Milwaukee’s biggest star came up in the biggest moment. With the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the ninth, who else would step into the box but Jackson Chourio?
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Having announced his presence in this series with a game-tying, two-run shot in the Brewers’ Game 1 victory, Chourio had plenty of confidence going into his at-bat against Miller. And the 22-year-old wasn’t trying to play here. He understood exactly what was unfolding.
“Watching those at-bats beforehand, I knew that he was a little bit erratic,” Chourio said of Miller. “He was throwing some balls. I knew that he was gonna come at me with the fastball at some point, so mentally, I was just making sure that I was prepared for that.”
The first two times Miller came at Chourio with the fastball, it worked; Chourio swung-and-missed at 100.8 mph and 102.2 mph before fouling off 103.5 mph. But after taking a tough slider to make it a 2-2 count, Chourio decided to call game.
Miller offered a 101.3 mph fastball, and Chourio ripped a 109.5 mph single into center field, past a diving Jake Cronenworth. Yelich scored easily from third, and as a flying Frelick slid across home plate to beat the throw from center fielder Jackson Merrill, the crowd let out a collective roar.
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“I think it’s probably in the top three of the special moments I’ve had in my career,” Chourio said afterward.
Since he made his major league debut at just 20 years old, the Brewers have known that Chourio is special. After his first three seasons in the big leagues, with him already having monster postseason numbers, that bar might not be high enough.
“I think he’s been that type of player. The talent is undeniable when you watch him play,” Yelich said of Chourio. “There’s nothing he can’t do on the baseball field. The more experience he gets, the more situations he’s in, the more he kind of learns the league and just racks up the at-bats, he’s just going to continue to get better.
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“And that’s kind of scary because he’s pretty good right now.”
Said Murphy: “He’s starting to realize how he has to play the game. As talented as he is, he’s still learning the game. … As a hitter, when he stays under control, it’s amazing. He’s, I think, turning into a bona fide, top-flight player. Couldn’t be happier for him because he brings it every day.”
With Chourio’s heroics, the Brewers take a commanding 2-0 NLDS lead on the Padres and will head to San Diego one win away from returning to the NLCS. By winning a game Sunday in which they didn’t play anywhere close to their best until the very end, the Brewers showed that they can find a way no matter what.
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“It’s the attention to detail that is instilled in our culture, stuff that I learned from [Yelich] when I first got called up,” Frelick said. “If you’re not doing it, you don’t play.”
“It’s a team that’s unified,” Chourio said. “We know what our strengths are, and we know how to support each other. … Everyone’s supporting each other, and we know how to win.”
