LOS ANGELES -- Seconds before first pitch, the Brewers were still settling in for what was expected to be a raucous atmosphere for Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.
With the crack of the bat, chairman and principal owner Mark Attanasio scrambled to his seat. Jake Bauers looked up from putting his batting gloves on. Robert Gasser smiled as he waited for his turn on the mound.
Budding Brewers superstar Jackson Chourio silenced the crowd of 50,708 at Dodger Stadium by crushing the game’s first pitch -- a center-cut 97.6 mph four-seamer from Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell -- for a homer to right-center.
It set the stage for an eventual 6-2 victory over Los Angeles on Wednesday that has the Brewers one win away from dethroning the reigning two-time World Series champions and reaching their first Fall Classic since 1982.
“It's so big, man. It's so big,” Bauers said. “There's so much tension in the dugout right before the game starts, especially these ones. There's a lot of nervous energy, tension, maybe even a touch of doubt. … From there, I think it kind of set the tone for the day and let everyone know that we're here to win this game.”
Chourio's homer became the sixth first-pitch leadoff long ball in the top of the first in a postseason game since pitch counts started being tracked (1988), joining Davis Schneider ('25 WS Game 5), Chris Young ('07 NLDS Game 3), Marcus Giles ('01 NLCS Game 2), Derek Jeter ('00 WS Game 4) and Marquis Grissom (1995 NLDS G2).
There have been 17 first-pitch leadoff postseason homers overall in that span, and Chourio, who also did this in last year’s NLCS Game 2 -- which was one year to the day before Wednesday’s long ball -- joined George Springer as the only players with two of those.
Snell, who served up a first-pitch home run to Schneider in last year’s World Series, is the only pitcher to give up two such homers.
In last year’s NLCS Game 1 matchup against Snell, Chourio went hitless in three at-bats with two strikeouts. Snell hadn’t surrendered a homer in 46 1/3 frames between the regular season and postseason in 2026.
Chourio flipped the script with one swing of the bat.
“In reference to the first pitch of the game, all I was going up there and looking for was a good pitch that I could hit, a good pitch to drive,” Chourio said via an interpreter. “Thanks to God, I was able to get one to connect with and put the team ahead early.”
With the long ball, Chourio entered into a four-way tie with Shohei Ohtani, Jeter and Jimmy Rollins for the second most postseason leadoff home runs with three. Kyle Schwarber has five. The only other player in postseason history to hit a leadoff homer before turning 23 is Ronald Acuña Jr.
Chourio also moved ahead of teammate William Contreras for the most career postseason home runs (six) by a Brewer; two of those have come this October.
“For me, he can take it all,” Contreras said in Spanish. “I want to win. I want to win the game. Like I told you the other day, Chourio is going to take all the records, God willing, and I hope he keeps it up, stays healthy and takes everything. I don't need any of that.”
Chourio now has 18 RBIs in 19 postseason games, surpassing Hall of Famer Andruw Jones (17 RBIs in 45 contests) for the most before turning 23. Chourio’s six postseason homers are also tops for any player before their 23rd birthday. Schwarber and Juan Soto each hit five.
“He's very impressive to watch at his age, and the maturity that he carries at his age … he's more mature than I was at 22, I'll tell you that,” Brice Turang said. “He's great, and we always say he's got that ice in his veins. He’s ready to go whenever. So, it's impressive.”
Chourio’s homer held in a pitchers’ duel until the Dodgers answered with a two-run double in the sixth. Bauers and Garrett Mitchell responded by going back to back in the go-ahead three-run seventh to chase Snell, who had a stretch where he retired 14 of 15 batters.
Through the first three games of the NLCS, the Brewers have outslugged the Dodgers, 5-0. Teams to outhomer their opponent have combined to win 49 of 58 games (.845) over the past two postseasons, including a 19-4 record in 2026.
“No moment's too big for Jack Jack,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “... He's special. He's a special cat. Just proud of our club, proud that they came out here and didn't let the -- the environment was great. Now, we had practice because the environment down the road there in San Diego for a couple nights was incredible also. It's a tough environment to play in. It was loud, and I'm proud of the guys that they stayed after it.”
Ricardo Montes de Oca contributed to this story.