Bullpen cedes first lead change of Series

ATLANTA -- For two years, right-hander Cristian Javier’s slider has been a fierce weapon for the Astros. On Saturday night, it was the pitch that put Houston’s championship dreams in jeopardy.

Javier served up back-to-back home runs by Dansby Swanson and Jorge Soler with one out in the seventh inning, turning a one-run Astros lead into a one-run deficit. The Braves’ bullpen made the lead hold up, dealing the Astros a 3-2 loss at Truist Park in Game 4 of the World Series.

Soler’s go-ahead blast came on a hanging 2-1 slider, which came as somewhat of a surprise. Javier had thrown 809 sliders since the start of 2020 and allowed home runs on only two of them.

To add to the unlikely nature of the comeback, Javier held right-handed hitters to a .587 OPS during the regular season, but it was two righties who delivered the crushing blows against the 24-year-old pitcher.

“None of these guys are perfect,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “They could have popped those balls up, but they didn't. These things happen. That's why you play the game. Nobody's infallible. It can happen to the best of them.”

The Braves lead the best-of-seven Series 3 games to 1, leaving the Astros in win-or-go-home mode Sunday night in Game 5.

After striking out Adam Duvall to start the seventh inning, Javier got ahead of Swanson 0-2, getting a pair of swinging strikes and a foul ball on three straight sliders. Javier tried to put him away with a 95 mph fastball, but Swanson drilled it to right field, clearing the yellow line on the 16-foot-high wall to knot the game at 2.

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“Javier's got great stuff; he’s got a great slider and a really good fastball that typically has a little bit of extra life to it,” Swanson said. “I'll be honest, I don't think homer was on my mind. I was just trying to get on base and make something happen. Thankfully, it was a homer.”

Pinch-hitting for reliever Tyler Matzek, Soler took a fastball for ball one, then Javier came back with two sliders, moving the count to 2-1. Javier went back to the same pitch, but this one hung over the plate and Soler drilled a frozen rope to left field.

Yordan Alvarez raced toward the wall in an effort to make a play, but the left fielder slammed into the fence as the ball disappeared into the Astros’ bullpen.

“I thought that Alvarez had a shot,” Baker said. “That would have been a fantastic play.”

The back-to-back homers – the first in Braves postseason history – marked the first time in this World Series that the lead had changed hands.

“I'm always looking for a fastball in those at-bats,” Soler said through a translator. “He threw me a fastball. … Then he threw me a couple sliders. On that second slider, I felt like I got a pretty good look at it. On that third slider, I felt like he partially hung it a little bit, and so I was able to make that connection and hit the home run.”

It nearly happened in the previous inning, when the Astros’ bullpen, which had allowed just two earned runs over its past 28 1/3 innings, weebled and wobbled but didn’t fall down.

Left-hander Brooks Raley allowed a one-out double by Eddie Rosario and walked Freddie Freeman, putting the tying run on base. Baker called on righty Phil Maton to put out the fire, which he appeared close to doing by striking out Ozzie Albies for the second out.

Austin Riley, who crushed righties this season to the tune of a .941 OPS – singled to left field, scoring Rosario from second base. Alvarez -- forced into left-field duty with no designated hitter in the National League ballpark -- made a fruitless throw home as Rosario scored with ease, allowing Freeman and Riley to take an extra base. Now trailing by one, the Braves had runners at second and third, threatening to seize the lead.

“The ideal way was to take the cutoff man,” Baker said. “We just didn't execute the way that we usually do.”

The Astros intentionally walked Joc Pederson to load the bases. Then Maton limited the damage by freezing Travis d’Arnaud on a 1-2 fastball, stranding the three runners.

“We've got a young staff,” Baker said. “A lot of these guys have been places where a lot of people will never go. All they can do is just learn from it.”

Javier had been stellar through his brief postseason career, posting a 1.47 ERA in 18 1/3 innings over nine appearances in 2020 and ’21, including nine scoreless innings this October.

Yet thanks to a pair of untimely home runs, the Astros now find themselves in a must-win scenario in Game 5.

“Even though they had two homers, he made good pitches tonight,” Astros second baseman Jose Altuve said. “That's baseball. Their hitter has a bat, and they've been working to get those homers, too. I don't think he pitched bad. He has a bright future in front of him.”