MILWAUKEE — There’s no hiding from the moment in the offseason. The lights are bright, the crowd is loud, and every pitch can determine the outcome of a team’s season.

When all three of those things happened for the Brewers on Wednesday, the 20-year-old was there with the big smile.

“He’s…he’s special,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of outfielder Jackson Chourio, fighting back emotions after his team’s 5-3 victory over the Mets in Game 2 of their NL wild-card series.

When the Brewers began spring training, Chourio pressed. Fresh off an $82 million extension – a record for a player with no major league experience – the rookie who would become the youngest player in the major leagues tried to clearly show the world he deserved it.

Throughout this season, Chourio was calm and had a calm demeanor. You might even have called him shy. But as he rounded the bases not once, but twice in Wednesday’s second game, he let every emotion in his body run wild as his two-homer day saved the Brewers’ season.

The boy from Maracaibo, Venezuela is no longer shy. He and everyone watching now knows he has arrived.

“I’m ready to put on a show for the big leagues and all the fans who didn’t get to see me play,” Chourio told Yahoo Sports in March.

Fast forward to today, and that’s exactly what he’s doing. Throughout the season, Chourio was the Brewers’ spark plug. First he was the youngest player in baseball, then the youngest player in MLB history to record a 20-20 season, and he just kept getting better. How much more can you ask of a child?

But after the team’s star outfielder Christian Yelich was sidelined due to season-ending back surgery, Chourio appeared to take on an even larger role. And on Wednesday, with his team’s back against the wall and their season on the line, Chourio took matters into his own hands.

“The pressure will always be there,” he said after the game. “As players, our job is to control it as best we can. It’s about going out there and finding the moment where we can control it, keep going out there and doing what we do.”

The Brewers left fielder began his monster night by smashing a leadoff home run into the Mets’ bullpen, putting Milwaukee on the field in the first inning and setting the tone for his team. The home run made Chourio the fifth-youngest player to hit a home run in the MLB postseason.

The playoffs tend to feature big moments where the stars shine. And late in the game, when Milwaukee fell to a 3-2 deficit and was eliminated in early October, there was a sense that something special was on the horizon. The crowd cheered in anticipation, and in the eighth inning, when the Brewers needed some magic, Chourio was indeed there.

With the score tied at 1-1, he drove a hanging cutter from Mets reliever Phil Maton deep into right field to tie the game. The Brewers’ dugout exploded, and when the ball hit the second-deck façade, Chourio electrified the 40,000-plus crowd at American Family Field.

That home run made Chourio the second player in MLB history to hit a postseason game with multiple home runs before his 21st birthday, joining Braves star Andruw Jones, who did so as a 19-year-old. Chourio also became only the second player in MLB history to hit two game-winning home runs in a postseason game, joining Babe Ruth in Game 4 of the 1928 World Series.

“I think the adrenaline is still getting to me. I think I still feel the adrenaline,” he said after the game. “It was a very special moment for me that I will remember for the rest of my life.”

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said: “While we were going through the situation, we wanted a match between Maton and Chourio.

“It just didn’t work.”

Two batters later, Garrett Mitchell put his stamp on the Brewers’ game by hitting a two-run pitch to help Milwaukee secure the win and the series at 1-1.

“It starts with (Chourio),” Mitchell said afterward. “It starts with the punch he put together.”

There have been several moments throughout this season where things have worked out for Chourio. After just starting to find his feet eight months ago, he is developing into exactly the player the organization envisioned him to be.

“I think you saw it (first) on defense,” Murphy said. “He showed some aggressiveness in the outfield and it was like, ‘Wow.’ … There were a few takes (early June) and suddenly I thought, “This kid got it.”

“…But the boy came with a big smile. He’s a great person.”

This season, Chourio showed everyone who was paying attention that he was a star, and now the postseason’s youngest player – who, fittingly, also played in the game’s finale – shines when the lights are brightest.

“These are moments that we can share together, both me personally and the city of Milwaukee,” he said. “That’s why I’m just very happy that we can celebrate this together.”