In the third inning of NLDS Game 1, Jackson Chourio took a Robbie Ray pitch and sent it 420 feet at 113.3 mph — the hardest ball he has ever hit in his career. The two-run shot tied the game at 2-2 and made him the all-time Brewers leader in postseason home runs with 5, passing both Prince Fielder and Orlando Arcia. He is 22 years old with three big-league seasons under his belt.
The swing that rewrote the Milwaukee record book
The Brewers were trailing 2-0 when Chourio stepped in during the third with Garrett Mitchell on base. Ray, the Padres‘ left-hander, delivered — and what happened next already has its place in Milwaukee history. The 113.3 mph exit velocity topped his previous career-best of 110.3 mph by three full ticks. American Family Field went to its feet.
That homer pushed Chourio to 5 career postseason home runs, leaving Fielder and Arcia alone in second place at 4 apiece. The record comes in just his third October in the majors — he debuted on March 29, 2024 — backed by a postseason line that has almost no comparison: .348 average, 1.106 OPS across 46 at-bats over 14 playoff games.
Milwaukee won Game 1, 3-2. William Contreras delivered the decisive blow — a solo home run in the seventh off Adrian Morejón — but the story of the night belonged to the kid from Maracaibo.
Where only Schwarber and Soto had gone before
The franchise record is massive on its own. But there is a second number that puts Chourio in an even bigger conversation: with 5 postseason home runs before turning 23 — his birthday is March 11, 2027 — he ties Kyle Schwarber and Juan Soto for the most playoff home runs at that age in MLB history.
This is not a fluke. Chourio has shown up every October since arriving in the league. In the 2024 Wild Card, he hit two home runs in the same game against the Mets — something no Brewer had done before. In 2025 he added two more against the Cubs. Now the fifth puts him alone atop every player who has ever worn a Milwaukee uniform in the postseason.
The Brewers entered the 2026 NLDS as the National League’s No. 1 seed at 103-59, the best record in baseball for the second straight year. San Diego (91-71) came in off a Wild Card sweep of the Cubs. It is the first postseason meeting ever between these two franchises, and Chourio picked the moment to deliver his best October performance yet.
The numbers behind the power
Chourio does not show up in the elite conversation by accident. Here is what Statcast logged for his 2026 regular season across 573 plate appearances:
- 25 home runs, 75 RBI
- AVG: .291 | OPS: .838
- xwOBA: .344 — 80th percentile in MLB
- Exit velocity (avg): 91.6 mph — 88th percentile
- Barrel rate: 12.3% — 81st percentile
- Hard-hit rate: 47% (balls at 95+ mph) — 83rd percentile
- Bat speed: 74.4 mph — 77th percentile
- Sprint speed: 87th percentile
Every single tool grades out above average or better. The 420-foot missile off Ray was not luck — it was the logical conclusion of everything those numbers point to.
