The MVP is tantalizingly close to his return to Atlanta.
Saturday may have been disappointing for Atlanta Braves fans after that nasty collapse, so if you want some positive news skip past the scores of these games and look at our man Ronald Acuna Jr. go. It’s a welcome sight to see him in seemingly good form, and while you’re hear to read about Acuna, JR Ritchie made his Double-A debut and Isaiah Drake hit his first out-of-the-park home run of the year.
(19-25) Gwinnett Stripers 3, (22-22) Charlotte Knights 5
- Ronald Acuna Jr, DH: 1-1, HR, 4 RBI, .500/.750/1.167
- Jarred Kelenic, CF: 2-5, RBI, .288/.390/.409
- Ian Anderson, SP: 4 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, 2.25 ERA
- Jhancarlos Lara, RP: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 10.80 ERA
- Craig Kimbrel, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 1.86 ERA
Sure, the system might have gotten swept on Saturday evening. However, perhaps life is good regardless. Ronald Acuna Jr. had a mammoth game at the plate, and it doesn’t seem like he’ll be spending too long down in Gwinnett especially with the big league team needing an injection of offense in the outfield. Acuna saw very few pitches in the zone, drawing walks in four of his five plate appearances, and right now his eye is absolutely on point. Acuna is not expanding the zone an inch, and when he got his chance in the third inning he took it. A slider stayed on the bottom of the zone and center cut and Acuna obliterated it dead center field, 420 feet, for a game-tying home run.
The rest of that Gwinnett offense wasn’t much to talk about. They had only three hard hit balls in the game as a unit, one being Acuna’s home run, and the run production was mostly a result of a whole lot of walks and a couple of soft hits falling in. Pitching on the other hand was a bit more of a successful venture. Ian Anderson had his share of command trouble, especially losing his feel for the zone in the second inning, but overall showed a continued improvement at holding his fastball velocity late into games. Anderson averaged 94 mph on his fastball — his highest average fastball velocity since his return from Tommy John surgery — while also throwing the most pitches in a game so far this season. His changeup was producing whiffs at a high rate, and most of his zone misses weren’t wild chucks at the plate. Anderson is getting back to the north-south approach that worked for him prior to his injury troubles, seeming to have abandoned the efforts to introduce more horizontal shape on his fastball and bring the slider into his arsenal.
WELCOME BACK, RONALD ACUÑA JR.
A 420FT @SoFi RONNIE ROCKET TIES THIS BALL GAME. pic.twitter.com/pKHytK1wDI
— Gwinnett Stripers (@GoStripers) May 17, 2025
You can also look to the bullpen to find some positives. Craig Kimbrel pitched on back-to-back days for the first time since late April, and though that was coming off of just a six pitch outing on Friday these last two still mark his two highest fastball velocity games with Gwinnett. Kimbrel averaged 94.4 mph on his fastball, a hair above where he was with Baltimore last year, and while it may not be wise to expect him to continue to regain velocity past this point he is still trending in the right direction and a couple of extra ticks would make him a viable bullpen option moving forward. In less encouraging news it was an awful day for Jhancarlos Lara, who in his second Gwinnett outing once again could not find the strike zone. Lara struggled with his release point yet again, and also threw an overwhelming number of sliders (80% of total pitches) which he did not locate well at all. Lara’s one cheat code is that his slider is so effective that he can usually get whiffs regardless of location, in fact he got four whiffs on six swings in this game, but he’s not going to be an MLB option until he starts living at least close to the strike zone. The moment he does find any consistent command he’s going to be a late-inning MLB arm, he’s just struggling mechanically, which should probably be expected somewhat as the Braves have made tweaks help him iron out the kinks and hitches in his delivery. One significant issue for Lara specific to his fastball is his tendency to overthrow and pull his body to his glove side when he throws the pitch, spraying many of his higher effort fastballs. On his slider this is probably the worst I’ve seen his release in a game. His arm path on his slider was long and he came in at a lower slot with his fastball, leading to timing issues between him planting and opening up versus actually releasing the ball. When he did so he quite frequently sailed pitches up and to his arm side. I don’t think Lara is as far away as the first five outings of this season look statistically. There is a clear plan in place for him and he’s done a decent job of implementing both the physical changes and the approach changes, he’s just still in that part of the learning process where he is making mistakes and trying to break poor habits.
Swing and Misses
Ian Anderson – 15
Enoli Paredes – 8
Jhancarlos Lara – 4
(16-20) Columbus Clingstones 0, (18-18) Knoxville Smokies 5
- Drew Compton, 1B: 2-4, .245/.320/.300
- Ethan Workinger, RF: 1-4, .261/.341/.568
- JR Ritchie, SP: 4 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 3 K, 4.50 ERA
- Luis Vargas, RP: 2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 5.23 ERA
The Braves are never fearful in their push to move pitchers through the system, and after a handful of outstanding starts they decided it was time for JR Ritchie to be the next arm bumped to Columbus. There is certainly merit to challenging Ritchie after his one-hit masterpiece last week, though unfortunately his first start in Double-A went much like his first few of the season. Ritchie really struggled to throw strikes across four full innings and a batter in the fifth, piling up five walks on his way to allowing two runs. Despite this though, it’s unfair to say he looked out of place, as when he did find the strike zone he looked like a pitcher who can give Double-A hitters a solid run over the remainder of the year. Ritchie’s inconsistency was spotted with flashes of the fastball command he’s shown in his past four starts, as he would find stretches where he elevated the fastball well and got some swing-and-miss. Unfortunately those moments weren’t quite frequent enough and his secondary offerings were off.
Smokies starter Will Sanders has been one of the top handful of pitchers in the Southern League this season, and he continued that dominance against a scuffling Columbus Clingstones lineup. Ethan Workinger had a single in the first inning, but save for that and an error the Clingstones wouldn’t get any other baserunners on against Sanders across six innings. Columbus finally chased Sanders and loaded the bases in the seventh inning, but they failed to come through in their only major scoring chance. David McCabe has been in a real slump in May, though the walk and strikeout numbers are still remaining solid for him. There has been an adjustment to try to get McCabe hitting the ball hard in the air more often, especially on the pull side, and right now he’s gotten into the habit of opening up and pulling off of pitches on the inner half and rolling over them to the right side.
Swing and Misses
JR Ritchie – 9
Jonathan Hughes – 3
Luis Vargas – 2
(20-18) Rome Emperors 2, (27-11) Greensboro Grasshoppers 4
- Patrick Clohisy, LF: 1-3, HR, BB, 2 RBI, .268/.401/.386
- Will Verdung, 2B: 1-2, 2 BB, .287/.375/.339
- Brett Sears, SP: 7 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2.00 ERA
- Samuel Strickland, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 2.70 ERA
It’s a day where it’s important to find each bright spot you can, and Patrick Clohisy was the man who gave us something to cheer for in Greensboro. It was a pretty awful offensive showing overall for the Emperors, and after Brett Sears allowed a three-run home run in the second inning they had a massive hole to climb out of. For the moment Clohisy gave us something to believe in. Lizandro Espinoza worked a walk with one out in the third inning, giving Clohisy a chance to put some pressure on if he could reach base. He did more than just reach, as Grasshoppers starter Khristian Curtis grooved a fastball on the first pitch. Clohisy jumped on it and ripped one into right center field, and the ball found just enough carry to clear the wall for a two run home run. Rome put even more pressure on with a couple of hits back-to-back following the Clohisy rocket, but EJ Exposito struck out in a big spot for out number two. The inning came down to whether Bryson Horne could make some two out magic, but he lined one softly over to second base that the defender needed no steps to reach.
Brett Sears did a fairly solid job for Rome, covering seven innings and keeping them in this game, but he made two huge mistakes that he just doesn’t have the type of stuff to get away with. Sears needs to work the edges, and he needs his defense to help him stay out of trouble, so an Espinoza error in the second inning certainly didn’t help his case. What made his case even worse, after allowing a hit, was leaving a fastball middle-middle that got tanked to right field for a three-run home run. That was certainly not an ideal pitch, but neither way the fourth inning curveball that he hung over the plate that got drilled for the second long ball of the game. Those mistakes aside, Sears did a terrific job of keeping hitters off balance and forcing weak contact. He doesn’t really have the outstanding stuff necessary to get consistent whiffs, but he’s advanced at mixing speeds and locating and was able to pile up ground ball outs to keep him rolling through seven innings.
Swing and Misses
Brett Sears – 13
Samuel Strickland – 3
(18-19) Augusta GreenJackets 6, (22-16) Columbia Fireflies 7
- John Gil, SS: 1-5, RBI, .233/.324/.302
- Isaiah Drake, CF: 1-5, HR, 2 RBI, .258/.333/.383
- Owen Carey, RF: 2-5, .293/.373/.406
- Rayven Antonio, SP: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 1.98 ERA
This was shaping up to be a huge one for Augusta, but a stunning late-inning collapse from one of their most reliable arms sunk them in extra innings. Both starters in this game were magnificent, and that goes especially for Rayven Antonio on the GreenJackets side. Antonio has made outstanding progress since his time with Augusta late last season, showing a significant improvement in his secondary command that has allowed him to dominate Low-A hitters. This was probably his best showing of the year, as he was locked in from pitch 1 to pitch 77. Antonio has done a great job of working ahead with his fastball, and when he is able to command his slider and his changeup below the zone he can rack up whiffs in a hurry. He did a terrific job of working both sides of the zone and really never seemed to be in even a moderate amount of trouble during this outing. It was the best we’ve seen from him yet and he has done a great job this year of putting his name in the hat as a legitimate top prospect.
The Augusta offense was able to chase Columbia’s pitcher an inning earlier than they could get Antonio out of the game, and immediately the GreenJackets were able to take advantage. It should be little surprise that Owen Carey was the man able to get the rally started in the sixth inning when he hung back on a two-strike slider and was able to punch it out into left field. The big blast to break the game open came from Isaiah Drake, and oh what a beautiful sight that is. I’ve talked at length on Drake and the changes he has made to his swing this season, and the way he is starting to incorporate his lower body to produce power is a thing of beauty. Drake fouled off three straight pitches until he got the two-strike mistake in the zone he wanted, and he dropped the bat head and drove a fly ball the opposite way for a two-run home run. The focus for Drake on driving the ball with authority has led to some uptick in his swing-and-miss in the past few weeks, but it’s also paying dividends as he is hitting the ball harder, hitting it in the air more often, and pulling the ball more often. This is wonderful progress and it’s relieving to finally see him get that home run as he has been showing flashes of a power breakout.
Jacob Gomez had to get just one out to escape unharmed in the eighth inning and given his 1.69 ERA on the season it was all but expected he would cruise into the ninth and shut down the game. Gomez, however, couldn’t have had much worse of a time. He hung the first pitch he threw, which got smacked into right field for an RBI single. That’s not too much damage, but he did it again on a 1-1 pitch to the next batter, and that one got drilled over the fence for a game-tying home run. Now, Gomez locked in after this and the offense did their job in the 10th inning, but Gomez couldn’t hold the lead in the tenth and the game kept creeping on later. Augusta would need a bit more firepower, and in the 11th inning Eric Hartman ripped a leadoff single on a 98mph fastball to score a run. He then stole third base and scored on a wild pitch, giving Gomez a third chance to close the game out in the bottom of the 11th — facing the same duo that smoked him in the 8th inning. Gomez made a better pitch with his slider to Derlin Figueroa, but Figueroa was able to power through and hit a jam shot pop through the middle of the infield for a leadoff single, bringing up Ramon Ramirez who could win the game with another home run. Gomez went fastball this time, but he failed to elevate it, and for the second time Ramirez took him deep. This time, he walked off the game.
Swing and Misses
Rayven Antonio – 17
Jacob Gomez – 7
(5-5) FCL Braves 4, (8-2) FCL Rays 11
- Juan Mateo, SS: 2-5, RBI, .237/.293/.289
- Jose Perdomo, DH: 0-5, .289/.341/.342
- Jhonly Taveras, SP: 3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 3.86 ERA
The story of the season for the top two FCL prospects — Jose Perdomo and Juan Mateo — has been remarkably similar. Both have 38 at bats, both have six strikeouts, and both even have two doubles. The numbers are fairly mediocre overall for Perdomo, especially following an 0-5 in this game, but that’s just a blip in what has been a scorching hot past few games. Power numbers in the FCL are a bit hard to come by, but Perdomo has been raking the ball over over the field with nine hits and only one strikeout in his past five games. The hit tool seems to be as advertised, and given this performance it should only be expected that he get a chance to play in full season ball later this year like Guanipa and Gil before him. Mateo is much less exciting, especially for the average fan, and he has been in a slump since a hot opening couple of games. This two-hit performance for him was a nice relief after three straight without a hit, though it remains true that Mateo’s raw hitting ability is terrific. Hopefully the hard hit rates starts to come up soon in line with his strength gains, though right now it seems that Mateo is likely destined to spend all of this season in FCL.