Chourio's star keeps rising as Brewers force a decisive Game 3

MILWAUKEE -- As his trying April and May turned into a second half for the record books, 20-year-old Brewers rookie Jackson Chourio grew so confident that he’d sometimes call his home runs before they happened. Like on Sept. 2 against the Cardinals, when -- in the middle of the sixth inning with nobody having set foot in the on-deck circle, much less the batter’s box -- Chourio decided that the Brewers were about to load the bases and he’d hit a grand slam. And then it happened.

So you couldn’t blame a teammate or two who looked Chourio’s way in the middle of the eighth inning of Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series on Wednesday, with the Brewers down a run and down to the final six outs of their season with Chourio due to lead off. This time, however, he was quiet. The inhabitants of American Family Field not clad in Mets blue and black braced against the thought of another first-round postseason exit.

It didn’t stay quiet much longer. Chourio did what he’d already done seven innings earlier, lofting a game-tying home run to the opposite field that gave the Brewers new life in what became a 5-3 win over the Mets after Garrett Mitchell delivered a go-ahead two-run shot and Devin Williams logged the first postseason save of his career.

The Brewers are moving on to a decisive Game 3 in the series because, like a kid on the sandlot, Chourio wasn’t ready to go home.

• NL Wild Card Game 3 FAQ

“He’s just a kid, we always say that,” said fellow outfielder Sal Frelick, a geezer at 24. “I hope he never changes being a kid, because it’s really special.”

Chourio is a kid who continues to put himself in some mind-bending company.

• With his leadoff home run in the bottom of the first inning off Mets starter Sean Manaea after New York had jumped to a 1-0 lead, and another homer in the eighth off Mets setup man Phil Maton to erase a 3-2 deficit, Chourio became the second player in Major League history to hit two game-tying homers in a postseason game, according to STATS. The other was Babe Ruth in Game 4 of the 1928 World Series.

• That doesn’t include go-ahead homers, so there is this: Chourio joined the Rays’ Evan Longoria as the only rookies to hit multiple game-tying or go-ahead homers in the same postseason game. Longoria did it in Game 1 of the 2008 AL Division Series.

• Chourio is the second rookie in MLB history with a game-tying home run in the eighth inning or later of a postseason game. Derek Jeter did it in Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS on the night a 12-year-old fan named Jeffrey Maier reached over the wall and became part of baseball lore.

• At 20 years, 205 days old, Chourio is the second-youngest player in MLB history to have a multihomer game in the postseason. The other, Andruw Jones, was 19 years, 180 days old when he did it for the Braves in Game 1 of the 1996 World Series.

• Only four hitters have homered in the postseason at a younger age, and they’re all household names: Jones in 1996 for the Braves, Miguel Cabrera in 2003 for the Marlins, and Bryce Harper for the Nationals and Manny Machado for the Orioles, both in 2012.

It keeps going and going. Hitting leadoff, just like he did on Opening Day against the Mets at Citi Field, Chourio hit the Brewers’ first leadoff shot in the postseason since Corey Hart in Game 6 of the 2011 NLCS. Chourio’s multihomer game was a first in Brewers postseason history.

But the historical nugget that mattered most to Chourio and the Brewers was this: Before Wednesday, the franchise was 0-26 when trailing entering the eighth inning of a postseason game.

Now they are 1-26, and there’s another game on Thursday night.

“I think I still feel the adrenaline,” Chourio said via translator Daniel de Mondesert. “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.”

There are 40,350 fans who can say the same after a night that saw the Brewers trailing from the middle of the second inning through the middle of the eighth. Starter Frankie Montas was besieged by hard contact in the first two innings and burned for two unearned runs after dropping a feed from first baseman Rhys Hoskins in the Mets’ go-ahead second -- a throwback to a similar gaffe that cost the Brewers in Game 1 the night before.

But this time, the Brewers got the sort of brilliant relief they rode through the regular season, with Trevor Megill (making his earliest appearance all year), Joel Payamps (making his second appearance in as many nights), Jared Koenig, Joe Ross and Williams combining to hold the Mets scoreless on two hits over the final 5 1/3 innings. That allowed the Brewers to make it a 3-2 deficit before Chourio dug into the batter’s box against Maton. The right-hander is plenty tested in the postseason, with a 0.83 ERA over 20 appearances for the Guardians and Astros. He was also pitching for the fourth time in five days.

When Chourio connected with a fastball up and slightly away, Maton dropped his head.

“Just a talented hitter,” he said. “You have to tip your cap.”

That talent has been evident for a while, long before Chourio became baseball’s youngest player to secure a 20-20 season, and before he signed the eight-year, $82 million contract in December that set a record for a player with zero days of Major League service, and even before he rose to No. 2 on MLB Pipeline’s list of baseball’s top prospects.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza remembers seeing Chourio in the Venezuelan Winter League when he was just a teenager. He said he remembers asking, “Who is this kid?”

“I knew we were in trouble,” Mendoza said.