Chourio's 8th-Inning Grand Slam Lifts Brewers to 4-3 NLDS Game 2 Win

Q: How much did a controversial stadium roof rule secretly dictate Milwaukee's commanding playoff lead over the Padres?

It mattered, but it did not secretly dictate Milwaukee’s 2-0 lead. The controversial moment came in Game 1, when Ty France’s ninth-inning drive hit the American Family Field roof structure and was ruled a live ball because it struck over fair territory under the park’s ground rules. Jackson Chourio caught it for an out, and the call was correctly upheld on review. That preserved a 3-2 Brewers win and clearly altered one critical plate appearance. But the evidence suggests the play was more a bad break than a stolen home run. Statcast had France’s ball at 105.3 mph with a 49-degree launch angle, an extremely steep profile that almost never becomes a homer. Reporting cited a projected distance of about 325 feet, and similar balls historically are outs nearly all the time. Some Brewers thought it was tailing foul; some Padres thought it was gone. There is no definitive proof it would have left the park. More importantly, Milwaukee’s edge goes beyond that call. The Brewers also won Game 2, 4-3, on Chourio’s walk-off single after San Diego asked Mason Miller for an unusually long outing and he lost command. Across both games, Milwaukee has paired late execution, defense and bullpen pressure with Chourio’s impact bat. So the roof rule may have swung a major moment in Game 1, and in a one-run series every break matters. But Milwaukee’s commanding lead rests at least as much on its own late-game performance as on one controversial stadium quirk.

3 articles · Updated · Yahoo Sports · Oct 5

Jackson Chourio erased a 3-2 deficit with a bases-loaded grand slam in the eighth, giving Milwaukee a 4-3 win and a 2-0 NLDS lead over San Diego.
San Diego led 3-1 after six innings behind RBI singles from Ty France and Dustin Harris, but Milwaukee chipped away before Chourio connected off Mason Miller.
Michael King started for the Padres and Logan Henderson for the Brewers, with Jackson Merrill's seventh-inning catch briefly preserving San Diego's edge before the late collapse.
Game 3 shifts to Petco Park on Tuesday, where the Padres return home needing a win to keep the best-of-five series from slipping away.