Braves lose Acuña but win baseball game, 8-1

If it felt a little like 2022 and a little like 2023 so far in 2024, now it feels a little like 2021 as well

The Braves won this baseball game, 8-1, routing the Pirates thanks to another good outing from Chris Sale and a bunch of barreled balls that didn’t actually result in outs for once. But, the bigger issue was that early on, Ronald Acuña Jr. departed with what is currently being termed “knee soreness,” but looked a lot more brutal as he lay crumped on the field in the first inning. At this time, the diagnosis and prognosis for Acuña are unclear; we’ll have new posts for those as they become available, so if you’re in this recap looking for those, no need to look further.

The injury drama happened early. Acuña started the game with a barreled double to right-center off Martin Perez. After Ozzie Albies lined out to center, Acuña fell to the ground after Marcell Ozuna took an offering from Perez:

Because there’s no mercy in baseball, Acuña was tagged out, and the inning ended after Ozuna walked and Matt Olson hit a floater to second.

That said, the Braves weren’t denied for long, and the game eventually turned into a rout. Jarred Kelenic, who replaced Acuña in the lineup, reached on an infield single in the third; Albies followed with a 50-50 liner double that got down and allowed Kelenic to score, though Albies was thrown out trying to take third. Perez didn’t return for the fourth after appearing to hurt himself trying to cover first on Kelenic’s infield single, and the Braves went double-deep fly out-deep fly out to score a second run off Carmen Mlodzinski. Then, in the fifth, another Kelenic single and Albies walk turned into two more runs off Mlodzinski when Olson skied a ball that went off the right field facade for a double.

After two scoreless innings by Pirates reliever Hunter Stratton, the Braves piled on more against Aroldis Chapman. Olson took the left-hander out into the river for a solo shot to start the frame, and Adam Duvall followed with a dinger of his own to make it 6-1. The Braves added two more in the ninth against Kyle Nicolas, as Kelenic collected his third hit, a double into the gap, Albies singled, Olson reached on a no-man’s-land pop-up into left, and Travis d’Arnaud hit another sac fly.

On the pitching end, Chris Sale had few problems with Pittsburgh. He allowed a second-inning run thanks to a pop double by Edward Olivares in the second that would’ve been an easy out had the Braves not been shading Olivares the other way, and then a single by Yasmani Grandal. Beyond that, he compiled an overall 8/1 K/BB ratio through seven frames; the only real threat against him came as a result of two one-out singles in the sixth, which he easily quelled with a strikeout and a popout. Joe Jimenez and Dylan Lee wrapped up the game, with Jimenez striking out the side on just 11 pitches in the eighth.

The Braves will now return home to face the Nationals, but more importantly, may once again need to figure out how to move forward without Acuña active and available to contribute.