With a routine fly ball lost in the tricky Los Angeles setting sun, Jackson Chourio was probably saying a prayer. Little did he know he'd soon be joined by a praying mantis perched comfortably on his shoulder.
The Brewers left fielder was able to pick up the ball off the bat of Freddie Freeman in the third inning of Wednesday's NLCS Game 3 at the very last moment, making the catch and allowing his brief moment of panic to subside. He glanced over at center fielder Garrett Mitchell with a look of relief on his face.
And that's when he noticed it: the crawling friend that had witnessed the journey.
“I didn’t know what to call it, but I did see that they said it’s good luck,” Chourio said. “I got a lot of messages saying it’s good luck.”
Chourio had first seen the creature on the mound, and was shocked to see it had moved to his shoulder. He tried to remove it from his uniform, but the mantis avoided him and reappeared on his opposite shoulder, creeping into the frame like it was playing a prank.
“I got scared,” Chourio said, laughing.
Milwaukee's 22-year-old star -- who had hit a first-pitch leadoff homer, one year to the day since he did the same last postseason -- did not play it quite as cool as Victor Robles did in 2021, when he too was visited by a praying mantis.
A completely unfazed Robles let that one sit on his hat while he was in the dugout and while playing the field, at one point even reminding the insect how many outs there were in the inning.
Maybe next time Chourio has a meeting with a mantis, he'll remember the good luck it brought him and let it stick around awhile.
Now that he knows the mantis is a symbol of good fortune, what does he think it means?
“It’s all positive,” Chourio said. “We’re going to keep going and have good days.”