Make California Post a Preferred Source Mason Miller threw Jackson Chourio a 100 mph fastball to begin the biggest at-bat of the Milwaukee Brewers season.
Then he threw him a 102 mph and a 104 mph fastball for strikes.
As Miller continued to throw gas up in the zone, Chourio did his best to battle them off knowing that the San Diego Padres closer was baiting him and soon going to throw a slider.
On the fifth pitch he did. A hanging slider that was low in the zone. Chourio remarkably laid off it to stay alive. With the count 2-2, Miller threw another 101 mph fastball up in the zone. This time Chourio was ready and he beat the best closer in baseball.
Milwaukee’s 22-year-old star lined Miller’s 101.3 mph fastball through the middle with two outs in the bottom of the ninth Sunday, scoring Christian Yelich and Sal Frelick for a stunning 4-3 walk-off victory over the Padres in Game 2 of the NLDS.
The Padres entered the ninth with a 3-2 lead and a 98% win probability, handing the baseball to a pitcher who had spent October turning opposing hitters into strikeout statistics. Miller retired Milwaukee in order in the eighth, giving him 12 strikeouts among his first 15 batters faced this postseason — an MLB record.
After Miller retired the first batter of the ninth, Yelich walked and stole second. Frelick walked. Andrew Vaughn flied out, bringing San Diego within one out of escaping Milwaukee with a split.
Instead, Gary Sánchez worked a full-count walk to load the bases.
Miller attacked him with the kind of velocity that has made October at American Family Field resemble a drag strip. His fastball registered 104 mph. Chourio eventually fell behind with two strikes but refused to become another name on Miller’s growing list of strikeout victims.
On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Chourio barreled a 101.3 mph fastball back through the box, just beyond Jake Cronenworth’s desperate diving attempt. Yelich scored. Frelick followed. The Brewers poured from their dugout while Miller walked off the mound having experienced something few hitters have managed to give him:
“Happy I could come through with that hit there,” Chourio said through an interpreter. “I’ve got my family here in the stands, so I dedicate this one to them.”
At 22 years, 80 days, Chourio became the second-youngest player in MLB history with a postseason walk-off hit, behind only Edgar Renteria in 1997.
And this was no ordinary arm he conquered. Miller and Brewers flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski have helped turn this NLDS into baseball’s velocity series. Through two games, the teams have combined for 83 pitches of at least 100 mph, already an MLB postseason series record and it isn’t even close.
The previous record was 56 back in 2016 in a four-game series between the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants. The Padres and Brewers have almost doubled that total in half the games.
But the 83rd and final pitch of over 100 mph in Game 2 of the NLDS on Sunday was the only one that mattered. The Padres were one strike away from tying the series. Instead, Chourio turned into a 2-0 Milwaukee lead to send the series to San Diego where the Padres will need to make some history of their own.
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