Chourio shows he's 'born for those moments' with game-saving performance vs. rival Cubs

MILWAUKEE -- Jackson Chourio is only 22 years old, but he’s been one of the Brewers’ top postseason performers the past two years. So it was fitting when he stepped to the plate and propelled the Brewers to a Labor Day victory over the Cubs that carried all kinds of implications for October.

“Sometimes I feel like I was born for those moments,” Chourio said. “Other times, I like the pressure that those moments bring. I don’t know why, but I know I enjoy them.”

Chourio punched a go-ahead, two-run single through a drawn-in infield in the eighth inning and then made a sliding catch in the ninth to finish a wild, 4-3 win over the Cubs on Monday at sold-out American Family Field, where a holiday crowd of 42,368 was treated to a thriller.

It was baseball’s version of a Labor Day two-for-one sale. Not only did the Brewers win the game to climb eight games ahead of the Cubs in the division standings with 17 to go, but Milwaukee also clinched the season series between the teams, 7-4, with only two head-to-head matchups remaining.

That’s critical, because it means the Brewers would hold the tiebreaker over the Cubs should Chicago mount a wild comeback in the division race over the next two-plus weeks.

“I didn’t realize we did that,” said Trevor Megill, who locked down his 27th save with help from his defense. “Huge, I guess. We’ve got bigger ambitions than just the season series.”

And the Brewers know they might see the Cubs again along the way. An October matchup would mean a rematch of a 2025 NLDS that went the distance. By winning Monday, the Brewers ensured that any postseason matchup with the Cubs would begin at home.

“It’s obviously not the playoffs, but it’s a mini-playoff atmosphere,” Christian Yelich said. “It’s probably the closest you can get before the postseason. Any time our teams get together, no matter what time of year it is, it’s big games, big series. You’ve got to go make plays to win.”

Brewers starter Robert Gasser was sharp for four innings before running into trouble in the fifth, so four Brewers relievers were called upon to hold the Cubs to two runs over the final 4 1/3 innings to give the hitters a chance to erase a 2-1 deficit in the eighth.

They did just that with a rally beginning with Garrett Mitchell -- whose fifth-inning single had briefly tied the game at 1-1 -- working a walk from Cubs starter Matthew Boyd to put the Brewers in business. Joey Ortiz’s double knocked Boyd from the game in favor of reliever Ryan Zeferjahn. The right-hander was ahead of Chourio, 1-2, when he fired a sinker above the strike zone that Chourio somehow put on the ground and snuck through the drawn-in first baseman and second baseman to score both runners for a 3-2 lead. ​

“You can tell when the lights are the brightest or the moments are super important, that’s when he takes it to another level,” Mitchell said. “And when I say take it to another level, it’s trying to do more. You can just see him settle. That inner confidence that he always has gets even more magnified.”

Speaking of keeping calm and carrying on, the Brewers didn’t stop their rally there. They eventually grew the advantage on Yelich’s sacrifice fly, all while Megill warmed up for the ninth.

That extra run proved the difference maker along with a pair of highlight-reel defensive plays behind Megill, starting with rookie right fielder Luis Lara making another sensational leaping catch at the wall to rob Pedro Ramírez. Whether it was going to clear the wall or not, it loomed very large when Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong followed with his 41st home run to make it a one-run game, the only home run off Megill in 55 1/3 innings this season.​

Then Chourio ended it by making a terrific sliding catch of Seiya Suzuki’s sinking line drive for the final out.

“Here in particular, you can have the tendency to lose the ball a lot, with the glass panels up top in the stadium,” Chourio said. “Luckily, I was able to get track of it at the last minute and make the catch.”

Lara faced the same challenges while going back towards the particularly tricky right field wall at AmFam Field, with its angles and varying fences.

“I saw him starting to track it and I could see his eyes,” said Mitchell, the center fielder. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be a close one.’”

“In that situation," Lara said. “I’m just reacting.”

Lara made the play. ​

The Brewers moved closer to clinching a fourth consecutive division crown.

“When you play the best teams in the league, you’ve got to do a lot of things right to beat them,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We did a lot of things right, but you’ve almost got to do everything right to beat them.”