ATLANTA — The Braves erupted late on Saturday night in a 3-2 victory and are now one win away from their first World Series championship since 1995.
For most of Game 4 at Truist Park, the Houston Astros held steady to a 2-0 lead. It could have been more, however, but Kyle Wright came on for starter Dylan Lee – who faced just four batters – and worked out of a bases-loaded jam with minimal damage.
The right hander then crucially worked through the fifth inning, keeping it close and handing it off to a Braves bullpen that didn’t allow another run the rest of the way.
That keeping it close part was critical for Atlanta – the team didn’t have an at-bat with a runner in scoring position until the sixth inning, before Austin Riley’s double finally got the Braves on the board.
They weren’t able to capitalize on a bases-loaded, one-out situation though, and it was 2-1 as the seventh inning ticked over.
It was in the seventh that Atlanta finally got over the hump.
Dansby Swanson, who’d been in a major slump throughout the playoffs, took reliever Cristian Javier for an opposite field solo home run to make it 2-2, before the next batter Jorge Soler turned on a Javier offering and cranked it to left field just over the wall for the 3-2 lead.
From there relievers Luke Jackson and Will Smith shut the door in the eighth and ninth.
And with that, this magical Braves run is a single victory from realizing a long-sought title for the team.