Jackson Chourio sets new MLB record with continued postseason dominance

The biggest storyline heading into last night's NLDS Game 2 matchup between the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs was the status of Jackson Chourio's hamstring injury that he sustained during the series opener on Saturday afternoon. While Chourio himself reassured Brewers fans that there was nothing to worry about, his manager and an inconclusive MRI test suggested that it wasn't a clear decision whether or not he would play in Monday's contest.

However, when the lineups were released ahead of the late-night battle in Milwaukee, Chourio was right there at the top of the Brewers lineup and set to play in left field as well, indicating that the hamstring injury was not a concern as the Brewers looked to extend their NLDS lead.

The night started quietly for the 21-year-old outfielder, as Chourio struck out in his first at-bat and hit a lazy fly out to left field in his second. However, when he came to the plate for his third plate appearance of the night, the situation was different. In each of his first two at-bats, Chourio stood in the batter's box with no one on base and his team either trailing or tied, but in the bottom of the fourth, as the Brewers clung to a shaky one-run lead, Caleb Durbin stood on second base and Joey Ortiz was on first.

On an 0-2 pitch from Cubs' flamethrowing reliever, Daniel Palencia, Chourio hit an absolute missile off the batter's eye in dead center, giving the Brewers their second three-run homer of the game and a four-run lead. The homer not only served as a dagger in the heart of Cubs fans, whose team jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in Monday night's game, but it also broke an MLB postseason record.

Jackson Chourio's Game 2 homer came on the fastest pitch ever hit for a home run in postseason history

As previously mentioned, Palencia is a flamethrower. He served as the Cubs' closer for much of the season, but a late-season injury left him less than fully prepared for the postseason, and Craig Counsell has opted to instead use him during high-leverage situations in the middle of games during the playoffs.

After getting ahead on Chourio with two fastballs north of 100 mph, Palencia tried to zip a 101.4 mph fastball in the middle of the zone past the Brewers' star outfielder. Instead, Chourio sent it 419 feet to dead center, making it the fastest pitch ever hit over the fence in MLB postseason history as first pointed out by MLB.com's expert statistician Sarah Langs on the social media platform X.

Interestingly enough, it's not the fastest pitch ever hit for a homerun in the history of MLB, just in the postseason. That's right, someone hit a pitch faster than 101.4 mph for a home run during the regular season. Who could do that? None other than Gary "The Kraken" Sánchez himself, who crushed a go-ahead two-run homer off of a 101.9 mph Aroldis Chapman fastball when playing for the Brew Crew a season ago, as reminded to Brewers fans by Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on X during last night's game.

Despite last night's contest being just the fifth postseason game that Chourio has played in during his young career, he is already cementing himself as one of the great postseason hitters in franchise history. His three postseason homers trail only Prince Fielder and Orlando Arcia, who each have four, as the most in franchise history, while his nine RBI, have him tied with Paul Molitor for third-most in franchise history, according to the Brewers' Senior Director of Media Relations, Mike Vassallo on X.

Add to those impressive accomplishments the fact that Chourio was visibly hobbled by his hamstring strain during last night's game, and you're talking about one of the greatest home runs in Brewers history. On one hamstring, facing 100+ mph, with his team leading by just one run over their arch-rivals in Game 2 of the NLDS? That, folks, is unbelievable.

Oh and by the way, he's 21-years-old.