Chourio passes Trout as youngest with multiple 20-20 seasons

MILWAUKEE – Every now and again, Jackson Chourio does something to remind you he’s still a kid playing this incredibly difficult game.

When Chourio stole his 20th base of the season in Friday’s 3-1 loss to the Reds to pair with his 20 home runs, it made him the youngest player in Major League history to deliver multiple 20-20 seasons. But it happened on a night the Brewers lost a Quinn Priester outing for the first time since late May, and the Reds climbed back into postseason position with two regular-season games to go.

That’s how many games remain for Milwaukee to clinch home field advantage throughout the playoffs (it requires one more win or one Phillies loss), to break the franchise record for victories (one away there, too) and, perhaps most importantly, to brew up some offensive mojo after averaging 1.9 runs in the last seven games.

“We want to go out there and demonstrate what we’re able to do as an offense, and kind of go into [the postseason] with some momentum,” Chourio said. “So, yeah, I think it’s important for us to go do it. I think everyone is going to be doing everything they can to do their part.”

Priester hadn’t lost since May 24 and neither had the Brewers whenever the right-hander took the mound, a remarkable stretch of 16 starts plus three long relief outings in which Priester went 12-0, and the Brewers won every game. That streak came to an end after a tough-luck outing in which Priester was charged with three runs on nine hits to finish a terrific regular season with a 13-3 record and a 3.32 ERA.

Brice Turang drove in the Brewers’ only run and the other highlight belonged to Chourio, who supplanted Mike Trout as the youngest player with multiple 20-20 seasons. Trout reached that status for the second time on his 22nd birthday in 2013.

Chourio is still 21, and won’t turn 22 until next March.

He hasn’t played with the fanfare of last year, when Chourio cracked Milwaukee’s Opening Day roster as a 20-year-old and shrugged off early-season struggles to finish third in NL Rookie of the Year Award balloting, but he’s still been plenty productive for a Brewers team with the best record in the Majors, posting a 111 OPS+ going into Friday night.

Getting to 20-20 this season required overcoming the right hamstring injury that kept Chourio on the injured list for 28 games from the start of August until the second week of September. On Wednesday in San Diego, he robbed a three-run homer and snapped an 0-for-20 slump with a single that sparked the winning rally. Back in action on Friday, he walked twice and etched his name next to Trout’s in the record books.

“I would have preferred to not stretch it to the wire so much at the end,” Chourio said. “But I feel very blessed to go through this moment, to go through this stretch. It’s a happy moment for me.”

The Brewers hope there are more happy moments ahead now that Chourio is healthy again. Murphy noted that a hamstring injury is particularly insidious for a position player because it keeps him off his feet and impacts his conditioning. Even when Chourio rejoined the Brewers lineup, Brewers coaches saw signs he wasn’t yet back to peak physical shape.

“I think that’s now behind him,” Murphy said, “so you’re going to see a real good version of him.”

That would be welcome news for the Brewers, who are 18-20 since their franchise record 14-game winning streak came to an end in mid-August in Cincinnati.

But that’s not necessarily an indictment of the club, the manager argues. By the time the Reds mounted the comeback that snapped Milwaukee’s streak on Aug. 17, the NL Central essentially was won. Especially lately, the Brewers have been pulling back pitchers’ workloads and tinkering with the lineup with the postseason in sight.

“It’s hard to stay hungry if you’re full,” Murphy said. “We understand the ramifications of the games are not the same, but it’s important to play right and grind out ABs, and get to first. Get your mind on that. … You could say we played too good too early, and now we’re faced with this again.”

Murphy says he’s not worried.

“You can pick us apart every single day,” Murphy told reporters. “I can, too. But I admire this team, I really do. Nights like tonight, you get exposed a little bit and it hurts. But there were a lot of good performances tonight.”