Jackson Chourio hit the first pitch of NLCS Game 3 from Blake Snell for a home run on Wednesday night. Yahoo Sports described a fastball sent deep into the right field pavilion seats at Dodger Stadium. Sportsnet called it an ambush. MLB.com's Christina De Nicola called it history-making, and the r/baseball post from MLB's official account put the date in context: one year to the day after Chourio led off Game 2 of the 2025 NLCS with a first-pitch homer, he did it again.
The homer set the tone for the game. Yahoo's Jason Owens wrote that it was the first of three home runs Snell gave up to Milwaukee, and that it took the life out of the crowd. The Brewers won 6-2. Owens says that pushed the Dodgers to the brink, and the results back that up. Milwaukee has won all three games of the series, 2-1 and 7-4 at home and now 6-2 in Los Angeles. Only Yahoo's coverage, in the pieces we have, includes the three-homer count. Sportsnet's second item links the homer to Davis Schneider's postseason homer, but the feed text we have doesn't say how.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 0 |
| LAD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
Snell was a hard assignment for any lineup this year. He went 4-1 with a 1.90 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 42.2 innings over nine starts. Chourio hit him on the first pitch he saw, and the Brewers added two more home runs against him.
Chourio has been a steady presence at the top of the order. He is hitting .291 with 25 home runs, 152 hits and 75 RBI in 127 games, an .838 OPS. Those regular-season numbers don't predict a first-pitch homer in consecutive Octobers, but they show a leadoff hitter who produces.
Milwaukee finished 103-59 and won the NL Central. Los Angeles was 100-62 and won the NL West, so the Dodgers are a 100-win team that has lost three in a row. The Dodgers will try to stay alive in Game 4 on Thursday, Oct. 15, again at Dodger Stadium. If the series goes longer, Games 5 and 6 are scheduled for Oct. 16 in Los Angeles and Oct. 18 in Milwaukee.
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