Chourio Walks Off Miller After a Costly Six-Out Plan

Jackson Chourio’s two-run single off Mason Miller walked off the Padres 4-3 on Sunday and put the Brewers up 2-0 in the NLDS. Miller had been asked to get six outs and was on his 40th pitch when Chourio, down to a last strike, lined a 101.3 mph fastball past Jake Cronenworth and into center field.

San Diego led 3-2 in the ninth with its closer on the mound. Three walks loaded the bases, and Milwaukee’s 22-year-old left fielder did the rest. The Padres now have to win three in a row, starting Tuesday at Petco Park, after spending that late-inning arm on a plan that got five outs.

Three Walks Set Up Chourio’s Winning Swing

Miller needed 12 pitches to retire Brice Turang, Jake Bauers, and William Contreras in the eighth, two of them on strikeouts. He came back for the ninth with a 3-2 lead and got Garrett Mitchell on a grounder. Then the strike zone left him.

Christian Yelich, named the club’s captain this season, walked on five pitches and stole second. Sal Frelick, down 1-2, walked on six pitches and put the winning run on first. Andrew Vaughn, pinch-hitting, flied to center. That was the 27th out Milwaukee had been living toward all year, until Gary Sánchez, another pinch-hitter, took six pitches without swinging, including a 103.3 mph fastball just under the zone and a slider in on the hands, and walked to load the bases.

THE NINTH AGAINST MILLER

• Garrett Mitchell: Grounds out to open the inning, the only easy out Miller would get in the ninth.
• Christian Yelich: Walks on five pitches, then steals second, Miller’s first career postseason walk.
• Sal Frelick: Walks on six pitches after falling behind 1-2, Miller’s second career postseason walk.
• Andrew Vaughn: Pinch-hits and flies to center, leaving Milwaukee down to its last out.
• Gary Sánchez: Pinch-hits, takes all six pitches, and walks on a full count to load the bases.
• Jackson Chourio: Works a six-pitch at-bat, fouls a 103.5 mph heater, lays off a 2-2 slider, and singles on a 101.3 mph fastball.

Chourio had gone 0-for-3 against Miller in his career and had already grounded out with the bases loaded in the seventh. He watched those walks, decided the fastball was coming, and hit it at 109.5 mph up the middle. Cronenworth dived for a backhand and missed. Yelich scored. Frelick slid headfirst and beat Jackson Merrill’s throw. A sellout crowd of 41,683 had its first lead of the afternoon, and it ended the game.

JACKSON CHOURIO WINS IT. PANDEMONIUM IN MILWAUKEE. pic.twitter.com/WJ0muePo1D

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 4, 2026

“Happy I could come through with that hit there,” Chourio said through interpreter Daniel de Mondesert. “I’ve got my family here in the stands, so I dedicate this one to them.” It was the third postseason walk-off hit in Brewers history, after Nyjer Morgan in the 2011 NLDS and Mike Moustakas in 2018, and the first that started with Milwaukee trailing in its last at-bat. Morgan had thrown a ceremonial first pitch before the game.

What a Six-Out Save Cost the Padres

Padres manager Craig Stammen went into Sunday thinking Miller would cover the last six outs. Left-hander Adrian Morejon had thrown 31 pitches over two innings in Saturday’s 3-2 loss, so the usual bridge was not there. Miller had not pitched since Wednesday. Monday was already a travel day. The eighth inning, against the top of the order, made the call feel even cleaner after 12 pitches.

“I think the top of the lineup in the eighth probably made that decision for Mason,” Stammen said. “I think going into the game we were thinking of Mason for six outs, especially how quick that eighth inning went for him. He was just battling the strike zone there at the end.”

Miller had finished six outs only twice in 2026, most recently on Sept. 4 against the Yankees, and he had not recorded a six-out save since 2024. He threw at least 30 pitches in four of 66 regular-season appearances. His previous high this season was 34 on May 15. Sunday’s 40 pitches were the most he has thrown as a Padre. Eighteen of them reached 100 mph.

MILLER’S NIGHT AGAINST HIS 2026 LINE

• Save rate: He went 38-for-41 in the regular season (92.7%) and had not entered a game with a lead and left it a loss all year.
• Pitch cap: Forty pitches topped his 34-pitch season high from May 15 and his four 30-plus outings in 66 regular-season games.
• Length: A six-out save was the plan; he had done six outs twice all year and had not locked one down since 2024.
• Last walk-off: No team had walked him off since May 17, 2025, before he arrived in San Diego.

The ninth was not a homer. It was three walks and a single. Milwaukee’s hitters took the slider, including Chourio at 2-2, and made a 101.3 mph fastball the one pitch that had to be in the zone with the bases full. Miller saw it that way in a quiet visitors’ clubhouse.

The cardinal rule is pretty much: You don’t beat yourself. And I beat myself today. I mean, a base hit with nobody on doesn’t win them the game. A base hit after you walk the bases loaded does.

Mason Miller, Padres closer, after Game 2

“I didn’t do my job today,” he said. “Instead of being here with a win and the series tied, we’re in a hole.” Stammen still liked the home stand in front of him. “They’re a great team,” he said. “You saw how hard they battle us here in Milwaukee. But we like where we are when we play at home. We can defend our home field and then hopefully have a chance for a return trip back to Milwaukee.”

Chourio Is Already Chasing Braun’s Playoff Records

Chourio is 22 years and 207 days old. He does not turn 23 until March 11. He is the fourth-youngest player with a postseason walk-off RBI, behind Edgar Renteria twice in 1997 (22 years, 54 days, then 22 years, 80 days) and Andruw Jones in the 1999 NLCS (22 years, 179 days).

A night earlier he had tied Game 1 with a two-run homer, the hit that made him Milwaukee’s career leader in postseason home runs with five. Sunday’s single was his 14th and 15th postseason RBIs, one behind Ryan Braun’s 16, and Braun needed 27 playoff games to get there. Chourio has played 14. The same swing pushed his postseason game-tying or go-ahead RBI total to eight, past Braun’s seven. Only Jones, with 17, has more postseason RBIs before a 23rd birthday.

CHOURIO AND BRAUN IN OCTOBER

He hit.291 with 25 home runs this season, with 75 RBIs and 23 stolen bases, on a deal that runs through 2031 at $84 million with club options after that. Yelich, who won an MVP in this city, did not dress it up. “He loves those moments,” Yelich said. “And he knows how talented he is, and what he can do on a baseball field. He can do anything.”

Center fielder Garrett Mitchell had tried to explain, before the series, why this 103-win club felt different from Milwaukee’s other seven postseason teams in the past eight years. “What feels different,” Mitchell said, “is that we’re in it until the 27th out. This year, even down to the last out, we still have a chance. That feels different.” Chourio’s version was shorter. “We’re a team that never backs down,” he said. “We’re never going to back down from a challenge, and we like these moments.”

The Glove Almost Beat the 103-Win Club

For eight innings the Brewers looked like a team that needed a closer to miss. They committed three errors, tying their season high, a mark they had already matched against these Padres on Aug. 11. Two of the errors came in the fifth, just their third multi-error inning of 2026. Brice Turang, who led baseball with 23 defensive runs saved and had five errors in 1,311 2/3 innings at second base, was in the middle of that mess.

Logan Henderson, in his first postseason start, was one pitch from a clean first inning when Manny Machado walked after an 0-2 count, moved up on a wild pitch, and scored on Ty France’s single. An unearned run in the fifth, Luis Campusano to third on an error and home on a fielder’s choice, made it 2-0. Michael King had retired the first 14 hitters and carried a no-hit bid into the fifth. Yelich doubled with two outs. Frelick singled, and it was 2-1. King hit Chourio to open the sixth and came out after 4 2/3 hitless innings. Henderson finished five-plus innings with two runs, one earned, on two hits.

San Diego made it 3-1 in the seventh on another unearned run. Fernando Tatis Jr. reached on an error, Machado walked with two outs, and France singled again, before Machado was thrown out trying for third. Milwaukee got one back in the bottom half when Mitchell singled and scored on Cronenworth’s error. So the ninth was a 3-2 game that both clubs had already kicked around, and Miller was asked to bury it anyway.

The Brewers won 42 games after trailing this season, fifth in the majors, and they were 35-36 in games they allowed the first run. The Padres had 26 blown-lead losses, the fewest in the National League. San Diego also came in 20-3 over its last 23 games of the regular season plus the Cubs sweep, and Sunday-Saturday was its first back-to-back losses since Sept. 1-2. None of that showed up in the ninth. Walks did.

An 0-2 Deficit Has Been Erased 10 Times

A 2-0 lead in a best-of-five is supposed to end the argument. Teams in that spot have gone on to win 83 of 93 times in best-of-five series (89%). Clubs that have taken the first two at home in a Division Series under the current 2-2-1 format are 33 of 36 (92%). The last team to win a five-game series from 0-2 was the 2017 Yankees, who dropped the first two in Cleveland and then won three.

THE 2-0 MATH THE PADRES HAVE TO BEAT

History is not empty for San Diego. Only 10 clubs have climbed out of an 0-2 hole in a five-game postseason series, and the Padres are on that list: they did it to the Cubs in the 1984 NLCS, when Leon Durham’s error in Game 5 opened the door and Goose Gossage finished a two-inning save. Milwaukee has one of those 10 as well. Cecil Cooper’s two-run single in the 1982 ALCS beat the Angels in Game 5 at County Stadium, 4-3, the same final as Sunday.

Six of those 10 closed it at home in Game 5. Four did it on the road. If the Padres win Tuesday and Wednesday, Game 5 would be Friday back in Milwaukee. They would still need the road win that most of those comeback teams never had to take.

Dustin May Draws the Park That Swept Milwaukee

Game 3 is Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. ET at Petco Park on FS1, Dustin May against Nick Pivetta, two right-handers with opposite recent months. May is the reason the Brewers can even talk about closing this on the road. Pat Murphy named him before Game 2 because of October innings he logged with the Dodgers and because of what he did to San Diego this season: a 1.23 ERA, 22 strikeouts, 22 innings, in three starts, two with St. Louis and one after the deadline deal that also brought JoJo Romero to Milwaukee. Career-wise he has a 3.14 ERA in 16 games (13 starts) and 86 innings against the Padres, far more than he has thrown at any other club. He has nine playoff appearances and a 3.86 postseason ERA.

“He’s pitched fantastic against the Padres,” Murphy said. “He’s got experience and we brought him in to do that.” May, who finished 7-9 with a 4.70 ERA and went 1-2 with a 7.61 ERA over his last eight outings, took the ball as a compliment. In his last three regular-season appearances he allowed seven runs and three homers in 7 1/3 innings. “That’s the biggest compliment that you can ask for,” he said Sunday. “Didn’t have the best stretch, but them having faith in me coming into it gives me a lot of confidence.”

Pivetta is 3-2 with a 2.86 ERA after a flexor strain in his right elbow cost him most of the year. He made four starts, went on the injured list in mid-April, then posted a 1.45 ERA in four September starts. In Game 2 of the Wild Card Series on Wednesday he gave the Cubs one run and three hits in 3 1/3 innings. He did not face Milwaukee this season. In five career starts against the Brewers he has an 8.76 ERA, most of it from a 2017 beating with the Phillies. “He’s been able to handle the moment, and we like his stuff,” Stammen said.

Petco is the argument San Diego has left. The Padres were 53-30 there this season, including two playoff wins over the Cubs, and they already own a three-game sweep of this Brewers club from Aug. 10-12. The last of those was a 4-3 win in 11 innings at Petco Park, Luis Campusano’s walk-off single, with May throwing seven innings of one-run ball in a game Milwaukee still lost. That series is why the Padres will tell themselves the park can fix what Miller could not finish.

It does not give them back the 40 pitches. It does not give them Morejon’s Game 1, or the three ninth-inning walks, or the 101.3 mph fastball Chourio was sitting on. San Diego has to win Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Friday in Milwaukee, and it has to do that after asking its closer for six outs on Sunday and getting five.