Look at the kid fly! Chourio hits inside-the-park HR in Brewers' win

MILWAUKEE -- It took Brewers rookie Jackson Chourio a while to get to top speed, but once he got there, he was off to the races on an afternoon with no shortage of storylines.

Chourio circled the bases for the 31st inside-the-park home run in Brewers franchise history during the fifth inning of Wednesday’s 6-5 win over the Rangers in 10 innings at American Family Field -- a back-and-forth ballgame that featured Jake Bauers’ booming grand slam, the debut of former Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel and Christian Yelich adding his 200th career stolen base to a season that already saw Yelich’s 200th career home run and 300th double.

If that wasn’t enough, there was an injury scare for All-Star Game candidate Joey Ortiz and a walk-off from his replacement, Andruw Monasterio, who, in his 16th at-bat all month, singled home the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning to secure the Brewers’ second three-game sweep of the Rangers in as many seasons.

“He’s always working hard, always got a good mentality,” Chourio said. “I knew he was going to come through for us there.”

Said Monasterio: “I was ready to finish it.”

Right in the middle of it all was 20-year-old Chourio, who continued his recent surge with a diving catch in the seventh inning and a 360-foot scamper around the bases in the fifth. It was the Brewers’ first inside-the-park homer since Yelich hit one on Aug. 6, 2020 at the White Sox.

According to Elias, Chourio is the youngest player to hit an inside-the-park homer since Ken Griffey Jr. on May 21, 1989 for the Mariners against the Yankees, when Griffey was 19 years, 181 days old.

It was also some franchise history. Chourio’s scamper came an inning after Bauers hit the Brewers’ second grand slam of the series, making Wednesday the first game in Brewers franchise history with both a grand slam and an inside-the-park home run on separate homers. Milwaukee has had two inside-the-park grand slams, the last one off the bat of Ben Oglivie on Sept. 26, 1980.

For Chourio, it was a familiar feeling, since he hit a Little League home run against the Angels just last week. That play was ruled a double and an error, but this time, he got full credit after Rangers center fielder Derek Hill dove for Chourio’s sinking line drive and saw it skip past him and toward the wall.

That’s when Chourio turned on his speed. He went home to home in 15.4 seconds, according to Statcast, with a sprint speed of 29.6 feet per second.

“To be honest, I was dissecting a few of my last pitches on the iPad, and all of a sudden we hear the crowd roar,” said Keuchel, who was burned by a pair of home runs in a four-run fourth inning that left manager Pat Murphy wondering whether he should have made a pitching move after three. “We look up, and he’s just scootin’ past second base. As the crowd got louder, I was like, ‘This is an inside-the-parker.’ … Sure enough, it tied the game up. That’s kind of what he brings.”

“I did think he was going to catch it,” Chourio said. “When I saw it pass him, I think it was time to go.”

Chourio has been going better of late, with an .840 OPS this month compared to .542 in May and .557 in April.

For Murphy, it’s as simple as the youngest player in Major League Baseball feeling more comfortable.

“It’s like, ‘I believe I can do this,’” said Murphy, who turned to his young sons Austin and Jaxon to explain the concept. “When you go in to pitch for the first time, there’s going to be some doubt. ‘I’m not sure I’m good enough.’ Then you’re do it enough times, and you’re like, ‘I got this.’”

As Bauers put it, “You can just see his confidence growing. He’s playing good defense in the outfield, having great at-bats at the plate, hitting the ball hard and going the other way. It’s been impressive.”

Chourio is learning his lessons in the Major Leagues after signing a record-setting contract for a player with zero days in the big leagues. That’s an entirely different animal.

“I’m feeling better every single day. Hopefully we can maintain this,” Chourio said. “Truthfully, there hasn’t been a lot different. I think more things are going my way and some of those hits are falling now.

“The thing was to continue playing my game. Not to change, not to think too much. Just to know that my moment was going to come.”