A walk-off base hit off Mason Miller's delivery put the Milwaukee Brewers ahead in Game 2 of the National League Division Series, with Jackson Chourio providing the deciding blow against San Diego. With two strikes separating the Brewers from elimination and a 3-2 deficit against San Diego in the ninth, left fielder Jackson Chourio delivered the game-ending hit off Miller, a closer who had already logged 40 pitches across 1 2/3 innings of work.

Chourio, who had managed only one hit across the first eight frames, put Milwaukee ahead for good with a single that scored the tying and winning run, lifting the club to a 4-3 final. The home crowd at American Family Field reacted as Milwaukee took a two-game lead heading into the remainder of the best-of-five National League Division Series.

The approach of leaning on Michael King as a starter while the bullpen closed out games had held up across the season, yet when a postseason test arrived, the combination did not deliver for San Diego. San Diego found itself trailing after the opening games of the series, with a single victory needed to send the Brewers through to the NL Championship Series.

With San Diego trailing in the series, manager Stammen turned to Miller a full inning ahead of the traditional save situation, handing his closer the task of recording six consecutive outs to put the Padres in the win column for the first time in the NLDS. Two-inning outings had appeared on Miller's ledger only twice across the current season, with a September 4 matchup against the Yankees standing as the latter of those occasions.

With his radar reading touching 102 mph, three batters — Turang, Jake Bauers, and William Contreras — went down in succession as Miller worked through the eighth inning without surrendering a baserunner. Two consecutive free passes — one to Christian Yelich, the next to Sal Frelick — came off Miller's arm during the ninth inning, both arriving with one out already recorded.

A mound visit gave the Padres a chance to halt the action. Vaughn's fly ball to center handed Miller the inning's second out, yet a bases-on-balls that followed put Gary Sanchez — stepping in off the bench for No. 9 David Hamilton — on first base. With the bases loaded, Chourio dug in to face Miller.

A 104 mph delivery from Miller drew a foul off Chourio's bat. Chourio waited through a low slider on the fifth pitch of the at-bat before connecting on a 101 mph four-seamer, sending the ball into center field and scoring both Yelich and Frelick. Clocked at 109.5 mph off Chourio's bat, the ball found its way into play for a hit.

A two-run home run by Chourio had levelled Game 1 in the third inning, and he delivered once more when Game 2 arrived. While Miller made his way back toward the dugout, the rest of the team came out onto the field following the hit.

At the warning track, Merrill went airborne to snag a ball that would otherwise have rolled to the gap, keeping Yelich to a single. Tatis Jr. went to the ground in right field to haul in the ball, leaving Milwaukee without a run. Reaching down without a glove, Machado scooped up a rolling grounder and delivered a throw to first base that retired the batter.

Milwaukee's three defensive miscues threatened to shift the game's direction, yet both rosters also produced notable plays — a leaping grab at shortstop from Cooper Pratt and an over-the-shoulder catch in shallow left by David Hamilton stood out for the Brewers, while San Diego's fielders maintained their composure across the full contest. Two ground balls off Tatis's bat — one in the fifth inning, another in the seventh — found Milwaukee fielders unable to convert the plays cleanly.

A mishandled grounder by second baseman Brice Turang handed San Diego a run in the fifth inning. Tatis reached base on a ground ball that Hamilton, playing third, was unable to handle, and came around to score when France drove a single into right field. Defensive metrics — including Runs Saved, Wins Above Replacement on the fielding side, and Outs Above Average — have placed the Brewers inside the league's top ten on a consistent, year-over-year basis, and ranking seventh among all MLB clubs for the fewest fielding errors placed Milwaukee among the cleaner defensive teams across the 2024 campaign.

During the opening inning of Game 2, a run-batted-in contribution came off the bat of Padres first baseman Ty France. With two outs on the board, Manny Machado worked a walk and moved into scoring position after Logan Henderson, a first-year right-hander pitching for Milwaukee, uncorked a wild pitch — giving San Diego the opening it needed. A looping hit from France into right-center brought Machado home from second base, putting the Padres ahead 1-0.

During the opening game of the series, a ball off France's bat traveled deep toward left field and caught a cable suspended from the roof at American Family Field, a contact that could have put his team ahead entering the ninth inning. A fly ball headed toward left field was hauled in by Chourio. After Milwaukee took the series opener 3-2, France told reporters he had felt certain the ball would carry over the wall; then, a game later, a right-field single in the seventh inning drove Fernando Tatis Jr. in from second base, adding another run batted in to France's total.

Game 3 is scheduled for Tuesday at Petco Park in San Diego, where the series will continue. On the mound for the Brewers, Dustin May draws the assignment against San Diego's Nick Pivetta, with both pitchers throwing from the right side.