Jorge Soler’s pinch-hit homer puts Atlanta Braves on cusp of World Series title

ATLANTA — Jorge Soler had taken only 11 plate appearances as a pinch-hitter over the past three years. Nine of them occurred this season, including two in the playoffs, but the concept was still foreign to him. His strategy was to swing as often as he could.

The Atlanta Braves would utilize only relievers in Game 4 of the World Series on Saturday night, which meant Soler could be summoned at any moment. So from the second inning on, Soler spent most of his time in the bowels of Truist Park in Atlanta taking repeated swings in the batting cage.

When his turn finally came in the bottom of the seventh, he quickly glanced at the scouting report of Houston Astros right-hander Cristian Javier, stepped into the on-deck circle, watched teammate Dansby Swanson tie the score with a fly ball off the brick wall beyond the right-field fence and told himself to look for something elevated. Four pitches in, Soler got a slider that drifted out over the plate and produced the home run that propelled the Braves to a 3-2 victory and put them one win away from their first baseball championship in 26 years.

“To me, to all of my family, it means a lot,” Soler, speaking in Spanish, said after the Braves took a 3-1 series lead on the Astros. “I wasn’t here at the start of the team. I was elsewhere. They traded me here, and they gave me the opportunity to be here, be part of this group.”

Swanson, a .248/.309/.439 hitter since the start of the regular season, and Soler, pinch-hitting in the pitcher’s spot because the National League rules prevent a designated hitter, became the first Nos. 8 and 9 hitters to belt back-to-back home runs in a World Series game, according to research from the Elias Sports Bureau.

Theirs just so happened to come at a crucial time, with the Braves trailing by a run, down to their final eight outs and the Astros’ high-end relievers in the game.

Soler’s batted ball — a 107 mph line drive that sailed just beyond the reach of Astros left fielder Yordan…