Brewers 4, Padres 3: Chourio Walked Milwaukee Off in the Ninth

Two outs. Two strikes. Then Chourio found center field.

October 4, 2026 - Milwaukee - Mason Miller had already thrown a clean eighth. He had Jackson Chourio down to his last strike in the ninth. The 101.3 mph fastball was his 40th pitch of the afternoon. Chourio lined it past Jake Cronenworth and into center. Christian Yelich scored. Sal Frelick slid in head first ahead of Jackson Merrill's throw. The Milwaukee Brewers beat the San Diego Padres 4-3 in National League Division Series Game 2 and lead the series 2-0.

Sunny. Roof open. 68 degrees. Wind 11 mph out to center. First pitch 3:08 p.m. CT. Attendance 41,683. The game lasted 3 hours, 14 minutes. Two were out when the winning run scored. ESPN's recap called it Milwaukee's third postseason walk-off win. The MLB recap called it the first last-inning postseason comeback that began with the Brewers trailing.

"We're a team that never backs down," Chourio said, per MLB.com. "We're never going to back down from a challenge, and we like these moments."

France twice. Errors twice. Milwaukee still had to climb.

Logan Henderson made his postseason debut and lasted five innings: two hits, one earned, three walks, four strikeouts, 72 pitches. San Diego scored in the first without extra-base damage. Manny Machado walked. Ty France singled to center. 1-0 Padres. Milwaukee did not put a runner on against Michael King until the fifth.

The fifth made the deficit two. Luis Campusano singled. Fernando Tatis Jr. reached on a fielder's choice that Brice Turang misplayed. Dustin Harris forced Campusano home, and Cooper Pratt threw the ball away as Harris went to second. 2-0. Milwaukee answered in the same inning. Yelich doubled. Frelick singled him in. 2-1. That was the first Brewers baserunner of the day.

The seventh was the messy inning both clubs will replay. David Hamilton bobbled Tatis's grounder. Machado walked. France singled Tatis home, and Frelick threw Machado out at third. 3-1. Milwaukee got one back without a hit that counted. Garrett Mitchell singled. Frelick walked. Pratt forced Frelick. Hamilton reached on Cronenworth's fielding error, and Cronenworth then threw past first. Mitchell scored. 3-2. Chourio grounded out with the bases loaded. Miller had started to stir. Milwaukee still trailed.

The Brewers finished with three errors, matching a season high, the MLB recap said. San Diego finished with two, both on Cronenworth in that seventh. Five hits apiece. The Padres scored a pair of unearned runs. Milwaukee still had the ninth.

King through five. Miller for six outs. The sixth out never came.

King threw five innings: three hits, one earned, no walks, six strikeouts, 72 pitches. He was the best pitcher on the field until he wasn't the pitcher who decided it. Yuki Matsui and Bradgley Rodriguez each recorded a hold. Miller entered for the six-out save ESPN said was his first attempt of that kind since 2024. He retired the side in order in the eighth. Then he came back.

Mitchell grounded out to open the ninth. Yelich walked, his first career postseason walk of this series in a spot that mattered, then stole second. Frelick fell behind 1-2 and walked anyway. Andrew Vaughn flew out to center. That was the 27th out Mitchell had talked about last week, the one he told MLB.com this club still believes in. Gary Sanchez pinch-hit, laid off a 103.3 mph fastball just below the zone, and walked on a slider in on the hands. Bases loaded. Two outs. Chourio.

Miller threw three triple-digit fastballs and got Chourio to two strikes. A 103.5 mph pitch was fouled. A slider started in the zone and darted toward the dirt. Chourio took it. 2-2. Then the 101.3 mph fastball in a hittable spot. Chourio had 14 and 15 postseason RBIs after the swing, one behind Ryan Braun's franchise record, the MLB recap said. Frelick, who grew up playing hockey in Boston, told MLB.com this is not a sport where you put on a cape. You take what the game gives you. The game gave Milwaukee a two-run single.

"Terrible. I didn't do my job today," Miller said, per MLB.com. "Instead of being here with a win and the series tied, we're in a hole."

Trevor Megill had thrown a clean top of the ninth: nine pitches, no hits, the win, 1-0. Aaron Ashby, Abner Uribe, and JoJo Romero had already kept it close. Henderson, after his arm-care work, was back in the dugout by the seventh. He told MLB.com he felt like he was watching the best player on the planet when Chourio came up again.

2-0, and the series goes to San Diego.

Brandon Woodruff told MLB.com he was running out of words. Ashby said Chourio has that X factor and was smiling and nodding. Mitchell watched with hitting coach Eric Theisen and said he could see the dial turn. Yelich said you still forget how young Chourio is. He is 22. He homered in Game 1. He won Game 2 with two outs and two strikes.

Teams up 2-0 in best-of-five series have won 83 of 93, the MLB recap said. Clubs that took the first two at home in the current 2-2-1 Division Series format have won 33 of 36. ESPN noted San Diego had not lost back-to-back games since Sept. 1-2, after entering October 20-3 in its last 23. The Padres try to keep the season alive Tuesday at Petco Park. Milwaukee is a win from a second straight NLCS.

Sunday did not look like a 103-win club until the last at-bat. That is the version of Game 2 the Padres have to live with on the flight west.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Milwaukee at 8 team fantasy points on a 4-3. King had 16 pitching FP in a loss. Yelich had 6 hitting FP. Chourio had 4. San Diego sat at 1. Those numbers are the walk-off: a win, four runs, three against, and a closer who threw 40 pitches and still did not finish it.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; ESPN recap; AthX Engine scoring applied to verified box stats. Information only; not financial advice.*