Jackson Chourio’s afternoon in left field during NLCS Game 3 had everything a young outfielder can do without: Freddie Freeman’s fly ball disappearing in the Los Angeles sun, a last-second catch, and then a praying mantis taking up residence on his uniform.
Key takeaways
- Chourio made a late read to catch Freeman’s third-inning fly ball after losing it in the sun.
- The 22-year-old Brewers star found a praying mantis on his shoulder immediately after the play.
- When Chourio tried to brush off the insect, it avoided him and showed up on his other shoulder.
- Chourio opened the game with a first-pitch leadoff home run.
- His leadoff blast came exactly one year after he hit another first-pitch postseason homer to start a game.
A tough read, then an unexpected passenger
The ball off Freeman’s bat looked routine at first, but the late-day light made it anything but comfortable. Chourio had trouble tracking the fly in left, briefly losing it before locating it at the last possible moment and closing his glove around it for the out.
He turned toward center fielder Garrett Mitchell with the relieved look of a player who knew he had escaped a dangerous moment. Then Chourio noticed he had not made the trip alone: a praying mantis was perched on his shoulder.
The outfielder reacted with considerably more alarm to the insect than he had shown after the fly ball. He tried to remove it, but the mantis slipped away and soon appeared on Chourio’s opposite shoulder, seemingly determined to stay in the camera shot.
Another October opening swing
Before the sun-fielding adventure and the insect interruption, Chourio had given Milwaukee an early jolt. He drove the first pitch he saw for a leadoff home run, repeating a postseason feat from exactly one year earlier.
Chourio did not handle his mantis encounter with the same calm once shown by Victor Robles in 2021. Robles allowed a praying mantis to remain on his cap in the dugout and in the field, even appearing to let the bug know the inning’s out count.
Chourio, understandably, was less interested in sharing his shoulder. Still, after a leadoff homer and a catch rescued from the Los Angeles glare, the visiting mantis may have made a decent case for being treated as a little October good luck.
