Manny Machado hailed a "huge" win for the San Diego Padres after playing a starring role in levelling up the NLDS against the top-seeded Los Angeles Dodgers.
Home advantage at Petco Park beckons for the Padres in the third and fourth games, with the series tied at 1-1 after the early proceedings in LA.
The Dodgers had taken a 5-3 win in Game 1, but Bob Melvin's Padres came back a day later and flipped that scoreline in their favour to level the series.
Machado enjoyed silencing the Dodgers fans. He had a stint with Los Angeles in 2018 before joining up with the Padres, making him a target for some in the crowd.
"Any time you come to Dodger Stadium, you know the fans are going to be on you. Any time you go to any stadium, the fans are going to be on you," Machado said.
"That's the beauty of postseason baseball. That's why you want home field advantage. Coming here, taking one from them at their place and going back home now 1-1, being able to maybe even win it at home will be fun in front of our fans that deserve it."
Machado played a key role by going two-for-five, including a first-inning solo homer along with a third-inning RBI, while Jurickson Profar got his fifth RBI this postseason to put the Padres up 4-3 in the sixth inning.
Jake Cronenworth added another with a solo blast over right-field in the eighth inning before Josh Hader closed it out.
Machado added: "[We're] going 1-1, going back home, so that's huge.
"We're going to compete. Ultimately at the end of the day we know that they're the division champs. They own the best record in baseball. They've played very well against us all year, but at the end of the day we're going to go out there and compete, and we're going to go out there and leave it on the field. We're going to try to do everything possible to help our team win every single day.
"We want to get to the World Series, we want to bring a championship to San Diego. Ultimately, the group is just getting together and just grinding this out."
With this National League Divisional Series tantalisingly poised following Wednesday's 5-3 win, manager Bob Melvin spoke of his anticipation of the next two games back in San Diego on Friday and Saturday, and what they would mean to fans of his team.
The Padres last reached a World Series in 1998, so the prospect of edging closer to that goal should ensure a feverish atmosphere. The double-header at home will be the Padres' first postseason games in front of their own fans since 2006.
"They've been waiting for this for a while, and they've supported us all year," Melvin said.
"The drama that took place during the regular season, I think we had 10, 12 walk-offs or something like that, that they were a big part of.
"They incentivise us. We feel like they're part of us. To be able to reward them, get home, and have some playoff games for them, it feels really nice."