Chourio felt more discomfort in that leg at some point in the game, manager Pat Murphy said, which explains why Brandon Lockridge took over for Chourio in the ninth inning. With a four-run lead and three outs to go, that move was about more than getting Chourio off his feet.
“He felt it again,” Murphy said. “We’ll treat him today, hopefully he’ll have a light day, and hopefully he’ll be good to go.”
The Brewers worked out at Wrigley Field on Tuesday afternoon ahead of Wednesday’s Game 3, set for a 4:08 p.m. CT first pitch.
There was similar uncertainty in the runup to Game 2, with Chourio’s status not becoming clear until Murphy met the media on Monday afternoon. Chourio did play, of course, and delivered a three-run homer in the fourth inning to give the Brewers some major breathing room by transforming a 4-3 lead into a 7-3 lead.
But there were other signs that Chourio was not moving at 100 percent, particularly in the sixth, when he reached on an infield single and then took a start-and-stop path to second base on an error by Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson. Chourio remained in the game to play two more innings of defense before the Brewers brought Lockridge into the game.
It continued a sensational introduction to October baseball for Chourio, who is 5-for-7 with six RBIs in the first two games of this series and 10-for-18 with five runs scored, three home runs and nine RBIs in his first five career postseason games, including last year’s NL Wild Card Series against the Mets.
“Like every other 21-year-old, he has his insecurities and he has his things that maybe get him derailed,” Murphy said. “But just in him, his expectations of himself on the baseball field and what he thinks he can do, it’s remarkable. And he doesn’t put limits on that. He’s just a really great human being, also. Just a great human being.
“To see him get fueled by the moment, it’s unusual for someone that age. Most, it would push them back or maybe limit them. For Jackson, it fuels him.”
