MILWAUKEE — In the postseason, you can’t hide from the moment. The lights are bright, the crowds are loud, and each pitch could determine the outcome of a team’s season.
When all three of those things happened for the Brewers on Wednesday, the 20-year-old kid with the big smile was there.
“He’s … he’s special,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy, fighting back the emotions, said of outfielder Jackson Chourio following his team’s 5-3 victory over the Mets in Game 2 of their NL wild-card series.
When the Brewers entered spring training, Chourio pressed. Fresh off an $82 million extension — a record for a player with zero major-league experience — the rookie, who was set to become the youngest player in the big leagues, was trying to show the world he deserved it. Through the first two months of this season, he was batting just .211, with a .580 OPS. Early on this year, Chourio was also quiet, with a reserved demeanor. You might’ve even called him shy.
But as he rounded the bases not once but twice in Wednesday’s Game 2, he let out all the emotions in his body as his two-homer day saved the Brewers’ season.
The kid from Maracaibo, Venezuela, isn’t shy anymore. He and anyone watching know that he has arrived.
“I’m ready to put on a show for the big leagues and all the fans who haven’t gotten to see me play,” Chourio told Yahoo Sports back in March.
Fast-forward to today, and that’s exactly what he’s doing. Throughout the season, Chourio has been the Brewers’ spark plug. First the youngest player in baseball, then the youngest player in MLB history to record a 20-20 season, he continued to get better at every turn. How much more could you ask a kid to do?
But after the team’s star outfielder, Christian Yelich, went down due to season-ending back surgery, Chourio seemed to take on an even bigger role. And on Wednesday, with his team’s back against the wall and the season on the line, Chourio took matters into his own hands.
“The pressure is always going to be there,” he said postgame. “So as a player, our job is to control it the best way possible. It’s to go out there and find the moment where we can control it, keep going out there and doing what we do.”
The Brewers’ left fielder started his monster night by crushing a leadoff homer into the Mets’ bullpen, getting Milwaukee on the board in the first inning and setting the tone for his team. The homer made Chourio the fifth-youngest player to hit a home run in the…