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Mets at Brewers Game 3 Odds, Predictions, How to Watch: Milwaukee was the favorite in the deciding game Nvidia's ChatRTX could be your alternative to ChatGPT for reading long documents and doesn't require an internet connection

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“Chour-io! Chour-io!”

The cheers from the left stands at American Family Field hailed Milwaukee's budding superstar, the 20/20-year-old who had just made back-to-back key contributions to a potential playoff victory.

For Chourio, however, there was another hiccup followed by an avalanche of bad news as the New York Mets scored five runs in the inning and cruised to an 8-4 victory over the Brewers in the opening game of a best-of-three National League wild-card series .

At the end of the fourth quarter, Chourio's RBI single – which initially set up a hustle double before an error was retroactively credited to center fielder Tyrone Taylor – had just tied the game, part of a rally that gave the Brewers a 4-3 lead. It was Chourio's second playoff hit after a single in the first.

A batter in the top of the fifth, Chourio's diving catch on the wall may have nullified a Starling Marte home run and temporarily preserved a tenuous 4-3 lead that Milwaukee gained later in the fourth. Each scoreboard replay brought a new cheer, not to mention the Chourio-specific chants from the stands.

Then came Taylor's fly to the left, more of a line drive than Marte's. Chourio awkwardly ran back, reached out and lost the ball from his glove for a double. After that the inning went uphill.

“That one kind of ended up in the windows up there and I couldn't see it that well from the jump,” Chourio said, referring to the windows above the stands on both baselines.

It wouldn't be the only flaw in the inning. Joel Payamps was late and was the first to reveal the possible endgame. The Mets strung together four boundary singles. One of them was a tough play for Willy Adames that he might make another day. The end result: A five-run rally, all after two outs, that turned the tide in Milwaukee's 8-4 loss in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series.

“We just have to keep going today,” Chourio said. “Some of the favorable hits didn’t come through, but tomorrow is a new day and we have to be ready to go.”

“It's a tough left field out there at this time of day,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of a game that began at 4:30 p.m. and dawned around the fateful fifth minute. “So, that second ball should have been caught, give the kid credit. It's a tough line drive in this sun. This is the only place on the field that is difficult. He doesn’t catch the ball, and now we have him” to get four outs. Payamps gets the next out, then he doesn't cover first and then two infield hits…”

The fifth inning is the story, but if the Brewers want to win two straight games and escape with the series, it will require even more production from Chourio, who was one of the team's bright spots in the second half.

“I was very excited,” Chourio said of his first playoff game. “I was just very grateful to have the opportunity to be in this position, to be in this moment, and I was very lucky to have that opportunity.”

“Jackson was amazing, man,” Murphy said. “He is 20 years old. Twenty years old. To play the defense he played in that situation, some of his good at-bats, he swings and he's a special player. I’m really happy for him.”

“I am happy when a player knows that he belongs. Do you understand what I mean? 'Hey, I belong. And I like the big moments. And I like being in this situation and I expect a lot from myself.' That means he's a really, really good All-Star player.

“Yeah, Milwaukee fans, I mean he’s special.”

On By John Fenwick

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