Eddie Rosario misses out on cycle, but hits two homers to power Braves’ win

Eddie Rosario missed a piece of history by about eight feet Wednesday night. Having homered in the second inning, tripled in the third and singled in the fifth, the Atlanta Braves left fielder had one more chance in the ninth to become only the second player in major league history to hit for the cycle in a playoff game.

With two on and one out, the left-handed-hitting Rosario tore into a hanging split-fingered pitch from Dodgers right-hander Tony Gonsolin and sent a ball on a line to deep right field.

If the ball had hit the wall, Rosario would have had the double he needed to join Brock Holt on a cycle built for two — the utility player achieved the rare feat for the Boston Red Sox in an American League Division Series game against the New York Yankees on Oct. 8, 2018.

But Rosario came up long. His drive sailed over the wall and into the right-field bullpen for a three-run homer that capped his one-man wrecking crew of a performance in a 9-2 victory over the Dodgers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series before 53,025 in Chavez Ravine.

Rosario had four of the Braves’ 12 hits, drove in four runs and scored three runs, as Atlanta responded to a crushing, potentially series-turning loss in Game 3 on Tuesday with a roundhouse punch of their own to take a 3-1 series lead and move to within one win of their first World Series appearance since 1999.

Since the start of Game 2 in Atlanta on Sunday night, Rosario has nine hits, including two homers, and two walks in 14 plate appearances in three games.

“Eddie’s been in the moment here,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I tell you what, he’s liked this postseason play, and good for him. He’s had great at-bats. I looked up and told Walt [Weiss, Atlanta bench coach], ‘He’s a double away from the cycle again,’ and he hit a homer. That’s better.”

Rosario, 30, drew little interest on the free-agent market last winter despite a solid six-year career in Minnesota, which included a 32-homer, 109-RBI season in 2019.

He signed a one-year, $8-million deal with the Cleveland Indians and was traded to the Braves on July 30, part of general manager Alex Anthopoulos’ attempts to rebuild his outfield in the wake of a season-ending knee injury to Ronald Acuna Jr.

Rosario was slowed for much of August by an abdominal strain but eventually found his stroke, hitting .271 with seven homers and 16 RBIs in 33 games for the Braves after hitting .254 with a .685 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, seven homers and 46 RBIs in 78 games for the Indians.

What changed in Atlanta?

“The weather,” Rosario said. “When it’s hot, I feel better.”

Rosario hit for the cycle in a Sept. 19 game at San Francisco and has been using the same bat since, including a solid NL division series against Milwaukee, when he hit .308 (four for 13) with two RBIs.

“I had that double remaining [tonight], and I was like, ‘This bat has not let me down yet,” Rosario said. “Whether I hit for a cycle or not, I’m trying to help the team win, and three RBIs is better than hitting a double.”

Former Twins manager Paul Molitor recently described Rosario as “a no-blink player,” meaning he’s not going to shy away from the spotlight or be afraid to take a risk on the basepaths or in the field.

That was clear in the eighth inning of Game 2 on Sunday night, when Rosario led off with a single and tagged up on Freddie Freeman’s routine fly ball to left field, beating AJ Pollock’s errant throw with a head-first slide into the bag.

Rosario scored on Ozzie Albies’ ensuing single to cut the Dodgers’ lead to 4-3. Albies scored on an Austin Riley double to tie the score 4-4. Rosario then capped a four-hit night with an RBI single off Kenley Jansen in the 10th to give Atlanta a 5-4 walk-off victory.

The left-handed-hitting Rosario singled and walked twice — once with the bases to force in a run — in Tuesday’s 6-5 Game 3 loss. He also had a brain cramp in the first inning, getting a terrible read on Albies’ looper to shallow center and getting doubled off second base in the first inning.

But Rosario, moved from leadoff to the fifth spot against Dodgers left-hander Julio Urias on Wednesday night, had his fingerprints all over the Braves’ Game 4 win.

With an 0-and-2 count in the second inning, Rosario flicked his bat at an up-and-away, 94-mph fastball from Urias and poked an opposite-field homer over the left-field wall for a 1-0 lead. Adam Duvall followed with a homer to center to make it 2-0.

Freeman’s homer to right to lead off the third pushed Atlanta’s lead to 3-0, and Rosario kept the inning alive with a two-out triple into the right-field corner. Duvall was walked intentionally, and Joc Pederson dunked an RBI single into shallow center for a 4-0 lead.

Rosario added a key hit during a run-scoring rally in the fifth, following Albies’ leadoff single with a one-out single to right to advance Albies to third.

Duvall’s sacrifice fly to center made it 5-0. Rosario struck out against Justin Bruihl in the seventh.