Acuña wowing Braves with prodigious power
ATLANTA — Ronald Acuña Jr. smiled when requested if he was conscious of the place he now ranks on the checklist of probably the most 470+ ft homers hit since 2018, the 12 months he made his MLB debut and started wowing the league along with his great energy.
“Yeah, you notice it,” Acuña stated by an interpreter. “It’s incredible to be in the same company of that group of hitters who have such strength.”
Acuña’s newest monstrous homer wasn’t sufficient to assist the Braves as they bullpened their manner by a 5-2 loss to the Red Sox on Wednesday night time at Truist Park. But it did additional cement his place with Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and the sport’s different energy hitters greater than able to producing jaw-dropping moonshots.
“It just amazes me when he connects like that,” Braves supervisor Brian Snitker stated. “It’s just something I’ve never seen before.”
Acuña started the underside of the sixth with a solo blast that landed on the high of the Hank Aaron terrace past the left-field wall. The solo shot, projected at 470 toes off Brayan Bello, was Acuña’s longest house run of the season and the fourth longest of his profession.
Marveling at Acuña’s ridiculous energy is one thing the Braves have commonly carried out over the previous 5 years.
Per MLB Stats guru Sarah Langs, Acuña has hit 4 homers which have traveled at the very least 470 toes in his profession. This ties him with with Stanton, Miguel Sanó and Trevor Story for the second most in MLB going again to that 2018 rookie season. Mike Trout leads the best way with 5 such homers inside this span.
Maybe much more spectacular is the truth that Acuña has now hit 27 homers which have traveled at the very least 440 toes (contains playoffs). That’s three greater than every other MLB participant inside this span.
Acuña completed the 2019 season three stolen bases shy of what would have been the fifth 40-40 season in MLB historical past. He was a high MVP candidate when he tore his proper ACL two days earlier than the 2021 All-Star break.
No longer bothered by the lingering results of the key knee damage, he’s a legit MVP candidate who may be a part of that unique 40-40 membership.
Acuña is hitting .347 with seven homers, 15 stolen bases and a 1.014 OPS. How distinctive is his mixture of nice velocity and energy? He ranks second amongst MLB gamers in steals and 4 of his seven house runs have been projected at 440 toes or longer. No different large leaguer entered Wednesday with at the very least three such homers.
With 4 homers in his previous 13 video games, Acuña is on tempo to complete this season with 30 homers and 65 stolen bases. The solely two gamers in MLB historical past to hit at the very least 30 homers with 50-plus stolen bases have been Eric Davis (37 HR, 50 SB in 1987) and Barry Bonds (33 HR, 52 SB in 1990).
“It’s like I’ve always said, he’s one of those guys where you better stay in your seats because you might see something special,” Snitker stated.
