CHICAGO — For most of the season, Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies has resided in the heart of manager Walt Weiss’ lineup. But after 151 games and a recent stretch of struggles for Albies, Weiss made a change Tuesday, dropping him to eighth for the first time this season in hopes that a change of scenery would alleviate some of the pressure.

By the seventh inning, Weiss looked like an oracle.

Albies crushed an 85.1 mph changeup from Chicago Cubs reliever Jacob Webb, sending it 396 feet into right-center field for a two-run homer that gave the Braves the lead in their 6-3 victory. Two innings later, Albies singled and scored on Drake Baldwin’s 24th home run of the season.

It was only one game. But for the Braves, Albies’ production came at an important time as they moved closer to clinching a postseason berth. Entering Tuesday 7-for-53 over his previous 14 games, Albies reminded the Braves of the impact his swing can have — something Atlanta has become all too familiar with over his nine-plus years in Atlanta.

“He was an All-Star this year, so we all know what type of player he is,” Baldwin said. “Him doing what he did today was huge and definitely changed the momentum there and got us back in that game. It’s fun to see. He’s the same guy every day, so we’re all rooting for him.”

Wrigley Field could not have provided a more appropriate setting for Albies to begin turning his fortunes around.

After his two-hit game, Albies is batting .376 with eight home runs, 19 runs and 19 RBIs at Wrigley Field. His batting average ranks among the second-highest in the ballpark’s history for hitters with at least 100 plate appearances, trailing Eddie Murray. And against the Cubs, Albies has a career .358/.410/.642 slash line.

The Cubs could be waiting for the Braves in October. But regardless of the opponent, Atlanta will need the version of Albies that showed up Tuesday if it wants to make a deep postseason run.

“Hopefully this is the night that (I) keep it going all the way,” Albies said. “So it definitely felt great.”

And if Albies’ career has shown anything, it’s that he has a knack for rising to the moment.

His career has been built, in part, on defying expectations. The industry questioned whether his smaller frame would limit his potential. The Braves didn’t. Instead, they invested in his development and watched him become the 15th player born in Curaçao to make his MLB debut.

Tuesday offered another reminder of what Albies can do when his swing is right. But it also showed what the Braves’ offense can look like when several of their most important pieces are clicking at the same time.

Albies’ close friend Ronald Acuña Jr. also slugged a two-run homer, his 18th of the season. The performance provided a bit of nostalgia for the longtime friends, who reminisced about those early days in 2018 and 2019 when they burst onto the scene, many times homering on the same night, not yet knowing they would eventually win a World Series together.

For one night, the Braves’ biggest bats looked like the group they envisioned as the season began. And when those pieces click together, the Braves know how different their offense can look.

“(Albies) has obviously been really impactful for us for several years now,” Weiss said. “And we got several of those guys that when they get going and swing the bat, we’ve seen our offense be the best in the game, and we’ve seen it struggle. But we know it’s in there because we did it for a couple of months (when) we were one of the best offenses in the game.”