The Chicago Cubs landed a quick jab to Freddy Peralta in the form of a Michael Busch leadoff home run.
The Milwaukee Brewers offense responded just a half-inning later with a roundhouse blow of epic proportions.
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Six runs on five hits and two walks later, Matthew Boyd had been knocked out of before the first inning was even complete, and three more runs against Michael Soroka finished the job in a decisive 9-3 victory in the teams’ Game 1 National League Division Series matchup at American Family Field on Saturday afternoon, Oct. 4.
Box score | Brewers vs. Cubs: NLDS schedule
Consider it a message sent by the three-time defending Central Division champions, who rapped out 10 of their 13 hits in the decisive opening two frames, but one that might also have come at the cost of one of their best players.
Jackson Chourio leaves playoff game with injury
Jackson Chourio had to be removed from the game after beating out a run-scoring infield single in the second with what the Brewers termed right hamstring tightness – a development that would be devastating to Milwaukee’s postseason hopes if the young outfielder is forced to miss the rest of the series or more.
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Every Brewers player aside from Joey Ortiz had at least one hit, with Ortiz still managing to contribute from the No. 9 spot in the lineup by drawing a pair of walks, and true to form, Milwaukee won in blowout fashion despite not going deep.
More: Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio exits NLDS Game 1 with hamstring injury
Peralta, meanwhile, delivered a strong 5 â…”-inning start in earning the first postseason win of his eight-year career, striking out nine to tie a franchise high for a playoff game.
The Cubs scored all three of their runs via homers in the first, sixth and eighth innings.
Six runs tie Brewers franchise high for single inning in a postseason game
The game opened on a bad note for Peralta and the Brewers as, four pitches in, Busch turned on a fastball right down the heart of the plate and ripped it out to right-center.
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But Peralta recovered quickly and retired the next three batters, with Seiya Suzuki being caught looking at a 97.7-mph fastball for the third out.
Milwaukee’s offense then responded with a postseason inning for the ages.
Chourio, Brice Turang and William Contreras greeted Boyd with doubles, and just like that the Brewers had a 2-1 lead in the blink of an eye.
But it didn’t end there – not by a long shot.
Following a Christian Yelich groundout, Andrew Vaughn walked to bring Sal Frelick to the plate. He pulled a routine grounder to the right side that perennial Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner Nico Hoerner clanked, allowing Contreras to score from second.
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Caleb Durbin struck out, then Blake Perkins yanked a single to left that scored Vaughn and ended Boyd’s day after just 30 pitches. The left-hander was starting on three days’ rest after throwing 58 pitches in the Cubs’ Game 1 wild-card win over the San Diego Padres on Sept. 30.
Ortiz welcomed Soroka with a walk, then Chourio made it two hits in the inning – becoming just the 45th player in postseason history to accomplish the feat and first since Houston’s Carlos Correa in 2021 – as he roped a single to left that plated Frelick and Perkins to make it 6-1.
The six runs tied a franchise high for a single inning in a postseason game accomplished twice previously and were the most since Game 5 of the 2011 NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals.
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Chourio has right hamstring tightness
After Peralta needed only 12 pitches to dispatch the Cubs in the second inning, Milwaukee’s offense went back to work once again with Contreras, Yelich and Vaughn each singling to load the bases to open the bottom of the frame.
After a Frelick flyout, Caleb Durbin blooped a two-run single to shallow center. An Ortiz walk two batters later loaded the bases once again, and Chourio ripped a shot down the third-base line that Matt Shaw made a diving stop on to keep the ball on the infield.
Vaughn scored as Chourio beat Shaw’s throw to first, giving him three hits in just two innings, but Chourio was quickly visited by one of the team’s athletic trainers and manager Pat Murphy. A quick conversation later and Chourio was lifted with his injury.
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Replays showed Chourio grimacing at first and then slapping his batting helmet in frustration in the dugout in the aftermath.
Chourio missed all but the final two days of August with a right hamstring strain suffered legging out a triple against the Cubs at American Family Field on July 29.
Turang struck out to end the second but Milwaukee had twice batted around in as many innings after having batted around only four times total in a postseason game in franchise history.
Freddy Peralta turns on cruise control, sets single-game postseason record for strikeouts
Staked to the giant lead, Peralta was freed up to pitch aggressively and for the most part did so with success, working around a pair of walks in the third and then retiring eight of nine until Ian Happ homered in a two-strike count with two outs in the sixth to make it 9-2.
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Carson Kelly followed with a single and Peralta’s day was finished. He exited to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 42,678 with reliever Aaron Ashby getting Pete Crow-Armstrong to end the sixth.
Peralta allowed four hits, two runs and three walks while striking out nine to tie Don Sutton, Yovani Gallardo and Brandon Woodruff for the club’s single-game postseason record.
In an interesting twist, it was ex-Brewer, Aaron Civale, who threw the pitch that ultimately contributed to Chourio’s day ending. He remained in the game through the sixth, delivering 4 â…“ innings of three-hit baseball with three strikeouts, halting Milwaukee’s offensive momentum and helping Chicago’s bullpen out of a potentially disastrous situation.
Hoerner homered off Jared Koenig to lead off the eighth, capping the scoring.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers 9, Cubs 3: Milwaukee gets Game 1 win; Jackson Chourio injured