LOS ANGELES – Quick strike. Bolt from the blue.
Call it what you will, but the Milwaukee Brewers were in front of the Los Angeles Dodgers before anyone at Dodger Stadium could even blink thanks to Jackson Chourio.
The leftfielder swung on and connected with Blake Snell's first pitch, a 97.6-mph fastball right down the heart of the plate, and sent it 391 feet out to right-center for a 1-0 lead in Game 3 of the teams' National League Championship Series matchup on Wednesday night, Oct. 14.
The ball left Chourio's bat at 106.1 mph and represented the first home run allowed by the left-handed Snell in 2026 (nine regular-season starts, one National League Division Series start).
It was the sixth postseason homer in three years for Chourio, tops in franchise history as he broke a tie with Ryan Braun, and fourth to lead off a postseason game for the Brewers.
Chourio has three of those and Corey Hart the other.
Chourio's three postseason leadoff homers are tied for second-most with Philadelphia's Kyle Schwarber's five tops.
It was also the 17th postseason first-pitch homer since pitch counts began being tracked in 1988. Chourio, who had one in Game 2 of last year's NLCS, joins Toronto's George Springer as the only players with more than one.
And finally, Chourio has now also surpassed Andruw Jones for most all-time postseason runs batted in by a player 23 or younger with 18.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Leadoff homer gives Jackson Chourio Brewers' all-time postseason record