He was one of the few bright-spots in an otherwise forgettable week.
Friday night, the Atlanta Braves, their fans, and all of Major League Baseball were reminded why Ronald Acuña, Jr. is on the short-list of the game’s best players.
On the first pitch he saw in almost one calendar year, he blasted the ball 467 feet vociferating his return with style and ironic symbolism as that would be the only run the Braves mustered against the San Diego Padres that night.
The Braves dropped all but one game this past week – a Saturday night outburst that showed what they could be – but the remaining four games showed who they have been and – at least for now – who they are … a below .500 team.
For most of 2025, the starting pitching has been the team’s suspenders, holding up the drooping pantaloons of the offense. But outside of excellent starts by the rapturous Chris Sale and luscious locks of Grant Holmes, the team’s pitching struggled with Dylan Lee, Raisel Iglesias, AJ Smith-Shawver and Spencer Strider all having week’s they’d rather move to their trash icon and permanently delete.
It wasn’t just the pitchers that would like to burned this week to the ground. Eli White would likely do a hard reset, as well.
There were some positives as Matt Olson hit three home runs; Ozzie Albies is carrying a hitting streak that included his first multi-extra-base hit game of the season on Sunday; Marcell Ozuna is still being productive; and Drake Baldwin continues to make people fawn for his procurement of an outfielder’s glove in the hopes that his bat would carry his likely defensive ineptitude in left field.
Even in the throngs of another week of unthinkable decisions and disastrous outcomes, there was La Bestia.
Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Battery Power Braves Player of the Week: Ronald Acuña, Jr.
How does one describe this weekend’s return of Atlanta’s best player? Go ahead, knock yourself out in the comments, because all of the adjectives and adulation don’t seem to quite do it justice.
By the time the Braves dropped the final game of the Padres series – and thank goodness the two teams don’t match-up again during the regular season – the man with the flair for the dramatic ended his first three games going 4-for-12 with two home runs, a double, three RBI, two runs scored, an outfield assist and almost a second while looking no-worse-for-the-wear in the outfield.
The best news of all is that he felt good enough to play in all three games of the series, something that was in question coming into the weekend.
Yes, he did strike out six times, but otherwise he looked like a vivacious facsimile of the 2023 version of himself – which was a historic and MVP season for the now 27-year-old superstar.
Alas, Acuña, Jr.’s excellence wasn’t enough to carry Atlanta to a series victory as they were undone by poor decisions on the field and in the dugout, but for a moment, all was right in the world.
Welcome back.