A 22 year old won a playoff game today with one swing in the ninth inning.
He signed for 82 million dollars before he had ever played a Major League game.
When he calls his father, they go through every single at bat.
His name is Jackson Chourio.
Today the Milwaukee Brewers were losing 3 to 2 to the San Diego Padres in Game 2 of the National League Division Series, down to their last outs at home.
Chourio hit a two run single. The tying run and the winning run, on one swing. Brewers 4, Padres 3.
Now look at the whole series.
Chourio has exactly two hits in it.
Game 1, a two run home run. The Brewers won 3 to 2.
Today, a two run single. The Brewers won 4 to 3.
Two hits. Four runs batted in. Two wins. Milwaukee leads the series 2 to 0, and the entire team hit .156 today and still won.
Here is where he comes from.
Maracaibo, Venezuela. When he was four years old a coach spotted him at an Aguilas de Zulia game and told his mother to put the boy in baseball.
His father is also named Jackson. He played, and he is the reason any of this happened.
"My dad is a very big baseball fan. I would always go to his games when he played and since I was a little he would always pitch to me. He would throw the ball so I could hit it."
His father taught him and his younger brother Jaison the fundamentals and coached them both growing up. Jaison is now an outfield prospect in the Cleveland Guardians system.
The Brewers signed Jackson at 16 for 1.8 million dollars.
Then in December of 2023, before he had taken a single Major League at bat, they gave him eight years and 82 million. It is the largest contract in baseball history for a player with no big league service time.
He debuted the next spring at 20 years old.
And here is what he said about his father, after all of it.
"Every time I call my dad, we have a really good conversation about every single at bat."
One more thing about him.
Two earthquakes hit Venezuela in late June. On the 29th, Chourio and teammate William Contreras set up a relief drive at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Milwaukee, working with Forward Latino and the mayor's office. Christian Yelich came. So did Brice Turang, Sal Frelick and Abner Uribe. They packed food, water and emergency supplies to ship home.
"Today was a first step," Chourio said. "We're going to keep pushing to help as much as we can."
Be honest about the size of today. He is 2 for 9 in this series. Two swings is not a body of work, and 82 million dollars is still a bet the Brewers are waiting to cash.
But a man in Maracaibo used to throw a ball to his little boy so the boy could hit it.
Today the boy hit one in the ninth inning of a playoff game.
And by his own account, they are going to talk about it.