MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio explains his success in clutch situations by saying that sometimes he feels he was born for those moments.
The 22-year-old keeps providing more evidence to back that up.
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Milwaukee Brewers' Jackson Chourio gestures as he rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers' Jackson Chourio smiles as he rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers' Jackson Chourio hits a two-run home during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers' Jackson Chourio gestures as he rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Chourio hit a tying, two-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning of Milwaukee's 4-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday to move the team a step closer to a fourth straight NL Central title. The Brewers lead the second-place Cubs by nine games and have a magic number of seven for clinching the division.
“Like I said before, I like to play with that pressure,” Chourio said through interpreter Daniel de Mondesert. “I think the adrenaline takes my game to another level. Thanks to God for getting solid contact there on that swing.”
Milwaukee’s division lead keeps growing in part because Chourio keeps delivering in critical moments.
The Brewers also beat the Cubs 4-3 on Monday afternoon, with Chourio’s two-run single in the eighth inning putting them ahead for good. Chourio was asked after the game about his ability to produce when a game is on the line.
“Sometimes I feel like I was born for those moments,” Chourio said then. “Other times, I like the pressure that those moments bring. I don’t know why, but I know I enjoy them.”
No wonder the Brewers feel so confident whenever he steps to the plate in those situations.
The Brewers trailed 3-1 with two outs in the ninth when pinch-hitter Christian Yelich singled to right. That brought Chourio to the plate.
“There’s not another person I’d probably want in that situation,” center fielder Garrett Mitchell said. “We were talking about this last night, but just his ability to come up clutch in moments you feel like a lot of people may or may not be prepared for, and he just like does less and absolutely demolishes baseballs.”
That flair for the dramatic has helped Chourio live up to all the expectations that accompanied his arrival after the Brewers signed him to an eight-year, $82 million contract before he had any major league experience.
“He knows he’s a great player,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said. “He knows what he’s about. Yeah, he loves it. He loves it and stays after it, believes in himself. He knows how capable he is, and when he’s got that dial on the right speed, be careful. We’ve seen it all too much his first three years.”
Chourio’s ability to deliver in the clutch is most evident from his postseason performances. He has batted .341 with a 1.044 OPS, four homers and 11 RBIs in 12 career playoff games.
His big swing Tuesday put the Brewers on the verge of clinching their eighth postseason berth in nine years.
Chourio connected on an 0-1 pitch from Jacob Webb and delivered a 394-foot shot over the left-field wall to cap his 4-for-5 performance at the plate. Luis Lara ended the game with a bases-loaded single in the 10th.
“I think he’s kind of just built different like that,” Mitchell said. “It’s just like what he’s made for. It’s been year after year, since he’s been a rookie. He just always has that clutch gene.”
The homer also helped Chourio make up for his inability to help the Brewers break a 1-all tie in the fifth. Chourio was trying to score from second on William Contreras’ two-out single to right, but he got thrown out by Seiya Suzuki while trying to slide home feet first.
“You hope he dives there and he’s safe,” Murphy said. “He’s got a lane to slide in. You hope he’s safe there. Feet first at the plate, I just don’t like it.”
Chourio’s homer gave him a career-high 22 this year after he hit 21 each of his first two seasons. He’s reached that new high despite opening the season with a fractured bone in his hand that delayed his season debut until May 4.
He also is on pace for career highs in batting average (.286), on-base percentage (.343) and slugging percentage (.484).
Considering how well Chourio has performed in clutch situations this season, it should come as no surprise that he’s also thrived amid the pressure of the Brewers-Cubs rivalry.
Chourio has hit .345 in 12 games against the Cubs this season. He batted .389 with a homer and six RBIs in the Brewers’ five-game NL Division Series victory over the Cubs last season.
“We need to win every single game, whether it’s the Cubs on the other side or any other team,” Chourio said. “Maybe it is that some of my better games have come against them, but regardless, it’s going out there trying to give the best version of myself every single time I’m out there on the field.”
He’s often at his best when it matters most.
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
Milwaukee Brewers' Jackson Chourio gestures as he rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers' Jackson Chourio smiles as he rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers' Jackson Chourio hits a two-run home during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers' Jackson Chourio gestures as he rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
As concerns rise about a return to an all-out Iran war ahead of crucial elections in the United States and Israel, Iran said messages are still being passed to the U.S. and Tehran remains open to diplomacy. And U.S. President Donald Trump said there would not be a strike against the Islamic Republic “today.”
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross has begun receiving lists again of Palestinian detainees from the occupied West Bank and Gaza after the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to resume sharing them.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Sunday. Read our full coverage here.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said Tehran has not closed the window of diplomacy and messages are being passed to the U.S. via intermediaries. Negotiations over the war have appeared to stall for weeks.
State media said Baghaei spoke in an interview with a German broadcaster. He said the U.S. appears to persist in unilateral demands and that Trump and U.S. officials repeatedly use the phrase “complete surrender," which Baghaei said no Iranian accepts.
Concerns are rising among Iranians about a possible return to all-out war as Israel and the U.S. face elections in the coming days.
Asked if he planned to launch an attack on Iran, Trump initially suggested that he would be foolish to telegraph that.
But Trump then added: “No. There will not be a strike today.” At the same time, the head of the U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, was flying over the Strait of Hormuz and asserting that over 3,000 commercial vessels have transited the waterway with U.S. military support over the last six months.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his warning that Iran or its proxies could attack ahead of Tuesday’s close elections to disrupt the vote, citing intelligence.
“The IDF is ready both to defend and to strike,” he said in a video from a visit to an anti-ballistic missile battery, adding: “You will suffer disproportionate blows far greater than you can imagine.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross has begun receiving lists again of Palestinian detainees from the West Bank and Gaza, a spokesperson confirmed.
The Israeli Supreme Court earlier this year ordered the government to resume sharing such lists and allowing the ICRC to visit detainees in Israeli prisons to assess their conditions. The government had suspended both practices since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the start of the war in Gaza.
ICRC spokesperson Gilad Grossman said Israel had not yet allowed prison visits to begin again but “we hope that we will resume in the near future.”
Israel rounded up thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza after the Oct. 7 attacks. Some were released in last year’s ceasefire, but around 9,000 are still imprisoned or detained under harsh conditions.
King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh said it opened terminals 1 and 2 for domestic and international flights, but Iran-backed Houthis in neighboring Yemen again fired drones and missiles toward the Saudi capital.
Saudi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said air defenses intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile and a drone fired toward Riyadh. The Houthis claimed the attack.
In early October, Houthi strikes hit an airport complex housing two other terminals, killing 17 people and wounding over 330.
Saudi authorities said debris from the interception of two ballistic missiles in Khamis Mushait and Ahad Rafida governorates wounded two people, a Saudi citizen and a resident from an unspecified Asian country.
The Civil Defense said the missiles were launched by the Houthis in Yemen, and the debris also damaged three buildings and seven vehicles.
The Houthi rebels later claimed attacks that included King Khalid air base in Khamis Mushait, calling them a response to “Saudi aggression” against Yemen’s rebel-held capital of Sanaa. The AP could not independently verify the claims.
Israeli strikes in Gaza killed seven people, according to Palestinian hospital officials.
Two strikes in Gaza City killed four people, and two brothers were killed in the southern city of Khan Younis. One person was killed in the central town of Deir al-Balah. The deaths were confirmed by officials from Shifa, Hamad, Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals, as well as an American field hospital.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
A year since a ceasefire began, Israel continues to bombard Gaza in what it says are strikes against militant targets. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up nearly half of those killed.
Pope Leo XIV urged an end to the fighting in Yemen and warned of worsening conditions for more than 1 million residents of Taiz besieged by Houthi rebels.
“The population is suffering from a lack of food, water and medical care,” the pope wrote on social media. Families have begun rationing water and a shortage of groceries has sent prices soaring in the country’s third-largest city.
Libya’s rival governments rejected comments by Trump in which he added the nation to a list of countries he described as “terror-infested.”
Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said he rejected “any affront” to his country or its people “who have made great sacrifices in the fight against terrorism.” And Libya’s second government, the self-styled Libyan National Army, called for authorities to lodge a protest against Trump’s comments.
At a campaign rally, Trump had accused the Democrats of trying to open the United States for “armies of migrants from terror-infested countries like Libya, Yemen, Haiti, Somalia.”
Libya plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising turned civil war that toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The country is divided between rival administrations.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
A man looks out over the water as a small boat passes cargo ships anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, early Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
Israeli soldiers take up positions during an army operation in the West Bank city of Hebron Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. A day after a Palestinian shooting attack in the area. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
A demonstrator wearing a mask depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends an anti-government rally ahead of the country's general election, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A demonstrator wearing a mask depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends an anti-government protest ahead of Israel's general election, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Saudi-led coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki speaks during a press conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Baraa Anwer)
