CINCINNATI – We are beginning to run out of words to describe Jackson Chourio.
The same goes for the Milwaukee Brewers.
Chourio is the youngest player in the majors. On Friday afternoon, he had his dugout thinking he was lost for the season when he came up hobbling and needed help getting off the field. A day later, he clubbed the go-ahead home run in the ninth inning to send the Brewers to a 5-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.
Another win for the Brewers.
They, at 80-56, are a season-high 24 games above .500. Only one team in baseball has a better record. Nobody has a better run differential.
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The Brewers do not have the most talented roster in the majors. Not even close to it, really. Their manager acknowledges this.
"It’s hard to win a major-league game," manager Pat Murphy said. "Ifyou look at the roster we have, there's nobody that’s like, they can walk on the field…"
Murphy's train of thought went elsewhere, but his point was clear.
What Milwaukee — perhaps headlined by Chourio — is doing defies expectations.
That's how they like it.
In their clubhouse, they understand what they have, even if it isn't always easy to deftly summarize in words. They have depth. They have one another. They have something.
"We’re not saying we’re more talented than other teams," Murphy said. "We’re just saying we’re finding a way. It’s somebody different every night."
Look no further than the contributors to Saturday night's win.
Blake Perkins robbed a home run in the sixth inning to preserve a tie.
Willy Adames hit his 12th three-run homer of the year.
Aaron Ashby, who a month ago was toiling in the minors with an earned run average flirting with the number nine, got the win with two scoreless innings.
Jake Bauers, after striking out in each of his first four at-bats, made a dazzling, diving stop for the game's final out on a smash off the bat of Ty France that had walk-off hit written on the seams.
"It's all part of that same mentality, that we're all in this for each other," Bauers said. "That kind of exemplifies it."
As Chourio put it: “I think everyone just kind of puts their grain of sand in. Everyone does their part so they’re able to help the team win.”
Jackson Chourio delivers in the clutch
He’s only 20 and all of 121 games into his big-league career. Yet Chourio seems to have ice running through him when the pressure of the moment is elevated.
On an evening when he had already reached base three times and scored a run, he battled back to reach a full count against Justin Wilson in the ninth after falling behind, 1-2. He fouled off a couple of tough pitches and took two others just off the plate, giving himself a chance to hunt a mistake. He got one: a 97 mph fastball up and over the plate. Chourio crushed it to right for his 17th homer of the year and the first go-ahead in the sixth inning or later in his big-league career.
Chourio, not even a year into his career, may already be the player the Brewers want to see at the plate in those situations.
A common word kept getting tossed around about him following his latest heroics.
"The kid is really, really special," Murphy said.
"I think it's getting pretty freaking ridiculous, to be honest," Bauers said. "This kid's special, for sure.
"He’s a special player," Perkins said. "It’s fun to watch. It’s fun to see it everyday in person. I think everybody should be excited for it. All the Brewers people should be excited about getting to watch him play for the next decade or however long he plays."
Jake Bauers saves the day
Chourio's heroics would have been for naught if not for Bauers making one of the defensive plays of the year.
A shaky ninth inning from closer Devin Williams nearly turned one of Milwaukee's most memorable wins this season to one of its toughest to swallow.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Ty France ripped pitch No. 32 in the inning from Williams to Bauers' left. It was ticketed for the right-field corner, which would have easily won the game for the Reds. Instead, a sprawling Bauers laid all the way out and made a backhanded stop, rose to his feet and won the race to first to secure the game.
Before the pitch, Bauers heard the pitch call from catcher William Contreras through his PitchCom device. Fastball, down and away. Bauers, who remembered from his time as France's teammate in Seattle that he liked to drive fastballs the other way, shifted a step or two toward the foul line.
It was the third incredible game-ending defensive play by the Brewers this season, the second of which came against the Reds. On June 16, Perkins threw out the tying run out at the plate for the final out against Cincinnati. Two days later, Sal Frelick robbed a home run that would have tied the game against the Angels.
"You can just see the fire of us not giving up and making some big plays," Perkins said.
Willy Adames from deep. Again.
The three-point marksman was left open on the perimeter once again.
Brewers shortstop Willy Adames continued his almost-incomprehensible run on three-run home runs in the third inning. With runners on the corners and two outs facing Reds right-hander Buck Farmer, Adames whistled a ball five rows deep to right-center for his 12th three-run blast of the season to put the Brewers ahead, 3-0.
That's the most by any hitter in a single season since Sammy Sosa's dozen in 2000 and is just one off the all-time record of 13 set by Ken Griffey Jr. in 1996.
Adames has more treys than four entire teams in Major League Baseball — the Pirates, Rays, White Sox and Cardinals — this year.
Reds get to former teammate Frankie Montas, eventually
Frankie Montas felt mixed emotions when the Reds traded him to the Brewers at the deadline. The veteran right-hander had drawn an emotional connection to Cincinnati and his teammates and expressed as such in the immediate aftermath of the trade.
A few days into his tenure with the Brewers, though, and he was ready to go out and try to beat his former club.
"I don't play for Cincinnati no more. I play for the Brewers," he said. "It doesn't matter if it's my mama stepping in the box. I'm going to try to strike her out."
Montas got the opportunity to try to strike out his former Reds teammates for the first time Saturday.
His first four innings were scoreless before a two-run Spencer Steer single drew the Reds within 3-2 in the fifth and Amed Rosario socked a two-run homer to left to tie the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the sixth.
Blake Perkins scales the wall again
In the same vein as Adames and three-run homers, Blake Perkins can't stop robbing long balls.
Perkins scaled the fence in straightaway center and took a home run away from Noelvi Marte for the final out of the sixth inning Saturday, his fifth robbery of the season.
It was just four days ago that Perkins made arguably the catch of the year, going up over the angled wall in center at American Family Field and bringing back a Thairo Estrada would-be homer.
Marte thought off the bat he had hit a no-doubter. Perkins, too, wasn't sure he had a chance to track it down.
"I think maybe in the daytime it might be out," Perkins said. "Off the bat I knew it was hit really well. As an outfielder, the first three or four steps you judge whether you’ve got a chance or not. The first three I didn’t think I had a chance. Then kind of just kept running and it came down. Just trying to make a play on it."
Montas, whose outing ended with the play, has been astonished by Perkins' play in center.
"I told him already that he's going to win a Gold Glove in the future," Montas said. "He's one of the best centerfielders that I've ever seen."
Brewers lineup
- Brice Turang 2B
- Jackson Chourio LF
- William Contreras C
- Jake Bauers 1B
- Willy Adames SS
- Blake Perkins CF
- Rhys Hoskins DH
- Garrett Mitchell RF
- Joey Ortiz 3B
Reds lineup
- Spencer Steer LF
- Elly De La Cruz SS
- TJ Friedl CF
- Ty France DH
- Dominic Smith 1B
- Amed Rosario 2B
- Will Benson RF
- Noelvi Marte 3B
- Luke Maile
What is the Brewers record?
The Brewers are 79-56.
Brewers schedule
Brewers vs. Reds, 11:10 a.m. Sunday. Milwaukee RHP Tobias Myer (6-5, 2.99) vs. Cincinnati RHP. Broadcasts: TV – Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio – AM-620.
