After 2-HR game, Chourio dreaming big with sights on Aaron in Milwaukee history

ATLANTA – Red-hot rookie Jackson Chourio supplanted Hank Aaron as the youngest player in Milwaukee’s Major League history with a multi-homer game, and became the first in MLB to accomplish the feat before his 21st birthday since Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Fernando Tatis Jr. all did it in 2019, as Brewers hitters filled up the scorecard again on Thursday to clinch a sweep of the Braves with a 16-7 win at Truist Park.

And while no one would ever put himself in the same class as Aaron, one of the greatest to ever pick up a bat, that’s the kind of player the 20-year-old from Maracaibo, Venezuela believes he can be.

“That’s an excellent player, so why would I say no to that?” Chourio said.

He added, “Hopefully, we can keep going and break some records here.”

It’s been a week for dreaming big, as the Brewers outscored the Braves in the series, 34-12, and out-hit them, 52-25, with Milwaukee tallying at least 16 hits in all three games. Right in the middle of it was Chourio, who continued his summer surge by going 3-for-5 in the finale and 8-for-16 in the series for Milwaukee’s first sweep in Atlanta since 2016, when the Braves still played downtown at Turner Field and Chourio was 12 years old.

Now he’s 20 years, 150 days old, so when he hit a solo home run leading off the second inning -- one of four Brewers homers off Braves starter Charlie Morton before he recorded his seventh out -- and a two-run shot in the fifth, it made the rookie the youngest Milwaukee hitter -- Braves or Brewers -- to go deep twice in a game.

The previous mark belonged to Aaron, who was 21 years, 144 days old when he hit two home runs for the Milwaukee Braves in a 14-1 rout of the Cubs at County Stadium on June 29, 1955. The youngest Brewers player was not Robin Yount, Gary Sheffield or Prince Fielder, but Billy Jo Robidoux, who was 21 years, 266 days old when he hit two home runs at Fenway Park in the 1985 season finale.

Aaron finished his career with 755 career home runs. Robidoux hit five.

Chourio has 14 home runs to go with 15 stolen bases as he chases a personal goal of a 20-20 rookie season. He came into the year with sky-high expectations after signing an eight-year, $82 million contract in December that set an industry record for a player yet to step foot in the Majors.

After a solid opening week, Chourio stumbled through much of April and a particularly rough month of May that dropped his OPS to a season-low .575 entering play on June 2. He had uncompetitive at-bats. He played tentatively in the field. He sulked to the point that teammates William Contreras and Willy Adames sat him down at American Family Field one night to build Chourio back up.

Since then, he’s been a different player, hitting .339/.384/.546 in his last 50 games including Thursday’s 3-for-5 afternoon -- Chourio’s 12th multi-hit effort in his last 16 games.

“There isn’t a magic formula for any of this,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “The bottom line is you have to see the ball and hit it, and you’ve got to have clarity, conviction and confidence. He’s developed that.

“It takes time. It takes your own personal experience. Nobody can give you confidence. It has to come from within.”

Before Chourio made history, the Brewers made Thursday’s series finale a rout thanks to their two-out hitting. Four consecutive two-out hits in the first inning produced three runs -- two on Contreras’ Statcast-projected 438-foot, two-run home run. Chourio and Garrett Mitchell each showed bunt before hitting back-to-back home runs with two outs in the second for three more runs. In the third, Adames led off with the Brewers’ fourth home run and Eric Haase’s two-out single made it 8-0 while chasing Morton from the game.

And they kept hitting. In the fifth, Jake Bauers homered off Braves reliever Parker Dunshee, and four batters after that, Chourio delivered the Brewers’ sixth home run of the game for a season high. It’s the 10th time in franchise history they have hit that many in one contest, one shy of the club record.

Does Chourio think fans will be surprised by his power?

“I can’t say necessarily what the judgment is of others, but I know myself that I have the ability,” he said. “The job is to show it.”

Chourio wasn’t the only hitter who showed it this week. Adames, a free-agent-to-be who could find Atlanta on his list of suitors this winter, homered three times in the series and Contreras, the former Brave, drove in seven runs. Another Brewers rookie, Joey Ortiz, matched Chourio’s .500 batting average in the series by going 7-for-14. So did Sal Frelick, who was 5-for-10.

By tallying 52 hits in all, the Brewers became the first team since the 2015 Red Sox to collect at least that many hits in a three-game set.

“I just hope we can keep it going,” Chourio said.