ST. PETERSBURG -- Standing off to the side of the Tropicana Field press conference room, waiting his turn to speak, Jackson Chourio perked up late Monday night when a reporter asked about his virtues as the Brewers’ leadoff hitter, as their 22-year-old engine, as their resident agent of chaos. When his manager began ticking through the things that make him special, Chourio smirked.
“Nobody’s shocked,” Pat Murphy eventually concluded. “He’s just really, really good.”
Through three World Series games, Chourio may not have a game-tying homer like Sal Frelick does, nor a game-winning hit like Cooper Pratt. He may not have made the type of defensive impact that William Contreras has, nor flirted with perfection like Aaron Ashby.
But make no mistake: Chourio, with eight total hits, four runs scored, three stolen bases and two RBIs, has made his presence felt.
In Game 3, a 10-1 Brewers blowout of the Rays, Chourio led off with a single, then singled once more and scored in the third. Two innings after that, he singled a third time, stole a base and scored again to help spark Milwaukee’s eight-run rally, before doubling home the Brewers’ final run later that inning. Upon reaching second base, Chourio clenched his fists and flexed his arms, punctuating the celebration with a scream.
It was his fourth hit, one shy of a World Series record that has stood since Paul Molitor rapped out five for the Brewers in their last Fall Classic in 1982. (Albert Pujols matched that record in 2011.)
“I was ready,” Chourio said through an interpreter. “I was ready, and I wanted to win today.”
Players this young tend not to do this sort of thing on this sort of stage. At 22 years, 229 days old, Chourio became the youngest to record four hits in a World Series game since Joe Garagiola in 1946. He’s the fifth-youngest to accomplish that feat in any context, and each of the other four -- Freddie Lindstrom, Garagiola, Ty Cobb and Donie Bush -- did so at least 80 years ago.
Cobb, for his part, was the only younger hitter to collect four knocks and a stolen base in a World Series game, doing so as a 21-year-old back in 1908. Those seeking less ancient history might look to newly minted Hall of Famer Andruw Jones, the only other man with nine multi-hit postseason games before age 23. But in some ways, Chourio has no peers. He has, for example, eight leadoff postseason hits before his 23rd birthday, which is two more than anyone else.
“Nobody’s surprised,” Murphy said. “He’s turning into a fine player. He’s understanding what it takes, the discipline that it takes. He’s coming into his own.”
Discipline is one thing. Talent is another, and Chourio has never lacked for that. As far back as age 16, when Chourio landed one of the richest international amateur contracts in Brewers history, team officials believed he could become this type of player. Even then, Chourio featured the type of “lightning hands,” as assistant coach Daniel Vogelbach described them, that make them adept at fighting off any type of pitch. Frelick called them “the quickest hands I’ve ever seen.”
“He can make such late decisions and never feel like he doesn’t have a chance,” Vogelbach said.
At Chourio’s age, Vogelbach noted, many hitters are still playing college baseball. Not Chourio, who’s in his third year in the Majors, coming off a regular season that saw him set career highs in home runs (25), runs scored (96), stolen bases (23), OPS (.838) and bWAR (4.9) despite missing the first two months with a fractured left hand. He’s already one of only five Brewers to record at least 150 hits, 25 homers and 20 steals in a season, joining Ryan Braun (three times), Christian Yelich (twice), Willy Adames and Tommy Harper.
But to impact the World Series is something altogether different. Through three games of this Fall Classic, Chourio is batting .571, putting himself in a potential Series MVP conversation alongside Contreras and Ashby. And if he doesn’t win it this year?
“I don’t think you’ve seen the best Jackson Chourio,” Vogelbach said. “As you go forward, he’s just so special.”
Seven months ago, Chourio -- his broken hand still undiagnosed -- batted ninth for the Venezuelan team that won the World Baseball Classic. He now has a chance to score another title, this time as a leadoff hitter growing more accomplished by the day.
“I get numb to it, because I get to see it every day and I get to hit with him every day,” Frelick said. “So when I go out there and see nights like this that he has … I wouldn’t say it’s what we expect of him, but it kind of is.”