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Right hamstring tightness forced Jackson Chourio out of Game 1 of the NLDS in the second inning, though Chourio had already logged three hits by that point in the Brewers 9-3 win over the Cubs. In the aftermath, Chourio told reporters “I feel good, and I feel I’m in a position where I’m ready to keep going and ready to keep competing,” though he underwent an MRI to check for any sort of serious injury.
That MRI didn’t come back entirely clean, as Brewers manager Pat Murphy told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Curt Hogg and other media that the MRI was “inconclusive. It’s not a serious hamstring strain, but it’s not necessarily something that won’t limit him. We’re going to kind of see how he feels. He’s going to go through some testing, and if he feels anything, we’re going to shut it down.”
As Hogg describes it, Chourio’s work today was limited to some runs from home plate to first base, with the outfielder moving “at roughly 50 percent.” Chourio “appeared to move gingerly but did not seem to be in any pain during or after the running,” Hogg writes.
The off-day between Game 1 and Game 2 of the series gave Chourio and the Brewers extra time to monitor the situation, and kept alive the chance that Chourio might yet be able to play in the next contest. There is also an off-day between Game 2 and Wednesday’s Game 3, so the Brewers could conceivably rest Chourio for Monday and then not make a final determination on his status until prior to Wednesday’s game.
Issac Collins took over for Chourio in Game 1, and Murphy said Collins will remain as the Brewers’ left fielder if Chourio indeed can’t play. As Hogg noted, Collins cooled off drastically over the last six weeks of the season, bringing a quiet end to an otherwise strong rookie season that saw Collins finish with a .263/.368/.411 slash line and nine homers over 441 plate appearances (122 wRC+).
If Chourio has to be removed from the NLDS roster for injury purposes, the Brewers would get to add a replacement to their roster, but Chourio wouldn’t be eligible to return to action until the World Series (if Milwaukee advanced through both the NLDS and NLCS). Outfielders Blake Perkins and Brandon Lockridge are already on the 26-man roster, so the Brew Crew wouldn’t necessarily summon another outfielder in Chourio’s place.
