Jackson Chourio didn’t need much time to make his mark at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.
On the first pitch of Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, the Brewers’ rising star jumped on a 97.6 mph four-seamer from Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell and sent it to right-center for a leadoff home run.
It was the kind of swing that barely gives a crowd time to settle in. It also came with a neat piece of history attached: Chourio had done the exact same thing in last year’s NLCS Game 2, and this blast came one year to the day later.
That made him just the second player ever with two postseason first-pitch leadoff homers, alongside George Springer. Since pitch counts began being tracked in 1988, there have been 17 first-pitch leadoff homers in the playoffs overall.
Snell now has his own strange place in that club, too. He is the only pitcher to surrender two of those homers after also giving one up to Davis Schneider in last year’s World Series.
Chourio’s swing also pushed him into a tie for second all-time in postseason leadoff homers. He now has three, matching Shohei Ohtani, Derek Jeter and Jimmy Rollins. Only Kyle Schwarber has more, with five.
The homer was also a milestone for Chourio within Brewers history. He moved past teammate William Contreras for the most career postseason homers in franchise history with six, and two of those have come this October.
There’s another layer to the stat sheet, too: Chourio’s blast was the sixth first-pitch homer to lead off the top of the first in a postseason game since pitch counts started being tracked in 1988. The others on that list are Davis Schneider in the 2025 World Series Game 5, Chris Young in 2007 NLDS Game 3, Marcus Giles in 2001 NLCS Game 2, Derek Jeter in 2000 World Series Game 4 and Marquis Grissom in the 1995 NLDS Game 2.
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