Jackson Chourio has had the biggest moment of the 2026 MLB postseason to this point. On Sunday, in Game 2 of the NLDS between the Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres, Chourio, with his team down by one, 3-2, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, came to the plate to face Mason Miller. The bases were loaded, so a base hit had a good chance of winning the game outright for Milwaukee.
Miller was as close to unhittable as it can get during the regular season, posting a 1.67 ERA to go along with 129 strikeouts in 66 games (70.0 innings of work). The Padres knew they had the right man on the mound. However, Miller may have been tipping his pitches, and along with a complete loss of command, he lost control of the game.
Nonetheless, he still got Chourio down to his final strike. Alas, with the count at 2-2, the Brewers star was expecting a fastball in the strike zone from Miller, which was exactly what he got. He then hit the ball right up the middle and scored two runs to win the game, 4-3, to take a 2-0 series lead.
Article Continues Below“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,” Chourio said, per AJ Cassavell of MLB.com.
Miller had already walked three batters in the inning, and walking in the tying run would have been devastating. Alas, he lost confidence in his command and simply wanted to land a strike, falling into Chourio's trap. It did not help that the Brewers seemed to be on to Miller, with some fans theorizing that the Padres closer was tipping his pitches.
Whatever the case may be, Chourio now has the Brewers on the cusp of making it to the NLCS. Game 3 of the Brewers-Padres series will be on Tuesday at 9:30 PM E.T. Dustin May will be starting for the Brewers opposite Nick Pivetta for the Padres.