Chourio (5 RBIs) powers resurgent Brewers to 17-run outburst

DENVER -- Great things come in fives.

At least, that’s how the Brewers felt after Wednesday night’s 17-2 win over the Rockies at Coors Field. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it marked the first time in franchise history that the club scored five or more runs in three innings of the same game -- Milwaukee scored five in the third, five in the fifth and seven in the ninth for its seventh win in the last eight games following an 0-4 start to the season.

Jackson Chourio led the way by driving in a career-high-tying five runs, and it was the second time he had a five-RBI performance in four days. With a two-run double in the third inning and a three-run homer in the fifth, Chourio extended his hit streak to 11 games. In that span, the 21-year-old outfielder is batting .354 (17-for-48) with four home runs and 16 RBIs.

Chourio was loving the number five on Wednesday. But he didn’t exactly have fond feelings for the digit on March 27, when he became only the third player in the Modern Era (since 1901) to strike out five times on Opening Day.

The Brewers lost that season opener, and then lost the next three games, too -- by a combined score of 47-15.

But, as with Chourio’s ignominious start to his sophomore season, Milwaukee’s rough start to the 2025 campaign seems like ages ago.

“One game doesn’t define anybody,” Chourio said through an interpreter. “Anybody can have a bad day on any given day. You just have to go out there and compete the best you can on each given day.”

The Brewers have done that despite a rash of injuries that has severely thinned the starting rotation, turning things around thanks to a lineup that was at first carried largely by Chourio and Brice Turang, who extended his season-opening hit streak to 12 games with a pair of singles on Wednesday -- Turang trails only Dickie Thon (13 in 1993) for the longest hit streak to open a season in franchise history.

But since the club arrived in Colorado, other key hitters have joined, most notably Christian Yelich and William Contreras. Each of them homered on Wednesday for the second consecutive game.

Yelich’s ninth-inning blast over the wall in center field traveled a Statcast-projected 465 feet. It was the second-longest homer Statcast has tracked for Yelich, trailing only a 499-foot shot into the upper deck at Coors in 2022.

“Yeah, it’s just good at-bats,” Yelich said of Milwaukee’s offensive resurgence. “It’s how baseball goes, you know? A week ago, everyone thought we were the worst team that’s ever played baseball. And this week, we’ve turned it around and played a lot better and kind of salvaged where we’re at early in the season.”

Given that all but one of the Brewers’ starting pitchers are on the injured list, the timing for the bats to heat up couldn’t have been better. Over the past four games, the Brewers have scored 39 runs. In the two games in Colorado alone, they’ve outscored the Rockies, 24-3, clinching their first series win at Coors Field in nearly seven years -- the last came from May 10-13, 2018.

“It’s what we needed to do,” manager Pat Murphy said. “We got out of the gates pretty slow and we’ve been banged up on the mound. … We responded pretty well. We did what we needed to do.”

The bats have been hot, but you still need some pitching. Left-hander Tyler Alexander wasn’t as sharp as in his first start of the season, but he gave Milwaukee 3 2/3 innings of two-run ball. From there, the bullpen shut down the Rockies’ lineup -- Elvis Peguero (1 1/3 innings), Nick Mears (one), Jared Koenig (one) and Grant Anderson (two) combined for 5 1/3 scoreless frames.

The Brewers are looking to win their third consecutive National League Central title this year, and many veterans who have been there before know that unexpected obstacles will inevitably emerge during the course of a 162-game schedule.

But they also know what it takes to overcome them. This season, Milwaukee is being tested early.

“There are going to be points in the season where you’ve got to deal with adversity,” Yelich said. “You’re not gonna have all your guys and you’re gonna need people to come up and do their part. Guys have done a great job, and hopefully we continue to play well.”