Connect with us

Published

on

Reigning National League MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. tore the ACL in his left knee Sunday and will miss the remainder of the season, a significant blow to an Atlanta Braves team that already lost ace Spencer Strider for 2024.

Acuña crumbled between second and third base during the first inning of the Braves’ game against the Pittsburgh Pirates after his left knee buckled on a delayed steal attempt. An MRI revealed the torn left ACL, which comes less than three years after Acuña suffered the same injury to his right knee while jumping to make a catch in right field.

Acuña, 26, is regarded as one of the best players in Major League Baseball and the franchise player for a Braves team that entered the season as the second likeliest to win the World Series. Despite losing Acuña in 2021, the Braves recovered to sneak into the postseason with 88 wins and romped to their fourth championship.

Atlanta won a major-league-best 104 games last season as Acuña batted .337/.416/.596 with 41 home runs, 106 RBIs and 73 stolen bases. Never before had a player finished a season with at least 40 home runs and 70 stolen bases, and the achievement thrust Acuña to a unanimous MVP award. The Braves fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in the division series for the second consecutive season.

Acuña entered the 2024 season with outsize expectations accordingly — and, like many of his Braves teammates, he had struggled over the first third of the season to reach them. In 49 games, Acuña hit .250/.351/.365 with 4 home runs, 15 RBIs and 16 stolen bases while playing below-average defense.

Prior to the announcement by the team that Acuña would miss the season, he told reporters that the injury felt less severe than the one in 2018.

“[I] don’t feel that painful, any pop or anything,” Acuña said. “… Don’t think it’s that bad.”

Following the team’s announcement, Acuña put out a one-word post on social media, “Sorry,” accompanied by broken heart and crying emojis.

Losing Acuña — who had led off Sunday’s 8-1 win against the Pirates with a double — is still a crushing blow for a Braves team whose offense has disappeared after a record-setting .501 slugging percentage last season. While designated hitter Marcell Ozuna has been one of the best hitters in baseball, Atlanta’s other core hitters — first baseman Matt Olson, second baseman Ozzie Albies, third baseman Austin Riley and center fielder Michael Harris II — all carry an OPS below .750.

Atlanta’s pitching has nonetheless carried it to a 30-20 record, tied for second in the NL with the Los Angeles Dodgers and behind the 38-16 Phillies, who are six games ahead of the Braves in the NL East and own the best mark in MLB.

The Braves have received standout performances from left-hander Chris Sale — who they acquired in a trade over the winter — as well as free agent signing Reynaldo Lopez, whose 1.75 ERA is the third best in the NL. Atlanta needed both to step up after Strider, the 25-year-old who led baseball with 281 strikeouts last season, underwent Tommy John surgery in April.

Acuña burst on the scene as a 20-year-old in 2018 and won the NL Rookie of the Year award after hitting .293/.366/.552 with 26 home runs. Before the next season, he signed an eight-year, $100 million contract extension that included a pair of club options, and quickly it was regarded as the team-friendliest deal in the sport.

Acuña expressed hope this past winter that he could sign a new extension that would pay him more in line with the best players in the sport, but talks never went far. Acuña currently does not have an agent representing him on the baseball side, but he recently signed with Rimas Sports — whose lead agent was recently decertified by the MLB Players Association — to handle his marketing and endorsements.

Continue Reading

Sports

Ohtani blasts two HRs to halt 10-game drought

Published

on

By

Ohtani blasts two HRs to halt 10-game drought

LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit two homers in an 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night, emphatically ending the three-time MVP’s longest homer drought since joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 24th homer, hammering Landen Roupp‘s fourth pitch 419 feet deep into the right-field bleachers with an exit velocity of 110.3 mph.

The slugger had been in a 10-game homer drought since June 2, going 10-for-40 in that stretch with no RBIs, although he still had an eight-game hitting streak during his power outage.

Ohtani led off the sixth with his 25th homer, sending Tristan Beck‘s breaking ball outside the strike zone into the bleachers in right. He also moved one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the overall major league lead.

Dodgers fans brought him home with a standing ovation as Ohtani produced his third multihomer game of the season and the 22nd of his career.

Ohtani reached base four times and scored three runs in his first four at-bats, drawing two walks to go with his two homers.

Ohtani hadn’t played in 10 straight games without hitting a homer since 2023 in the final 10 games of his six-year tenure with the Los Angeles Angels.

Ohtani had slowed down a bit over the past two weeks after he was named the NL Player of the Month for May with a formidable performance, racking up 15 homers and 28 RBIs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Sports

Dobbins’ second win over Yanks caps ‘fun’ week

Published

on

By

Dobbins' second win over Yanks caps 'fun' week

BOSTON — Hunter Dobbins had quite the week.

First, he said last weekend that he would rather retire than pitch for the Yankees because his father was drafted by New York twice before being traded.

Then, he went out and beat the Yankees.

A few days after his comments about never wanting to pitch for New York, he had to defend his dad’s story about being drafted by the Yankees in response to a New York Post article that cited multiple official databases and the Yankees’ own records that couldn’t confirm Lance Dobbins ever played with the organization.

On Saturday night, Dobbins (4-1) followed up by going six shutout innings in Boston’s 4-3 victory over New York, his second win over the Yankees in less than a week.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m more worried about just the win column, whether it’s against them or anybody. My job is to try and help this team win as many ballgames as we can, and pitch in meaningful playoff baseball games. That’s what I’m more focused on.”

But he realizes what it means to the fan base in this longtime rivalry, with the Red Sox fans heard chanting about the Yankees outside the park before he spoke in an interview room.

“Yeah, I love being able to perform and get those wins for the fans here,” he said. “They deserve it. It’s a great city, passionate fan base, so being able to get those wins — especially twice in one week — means a lot and looking forward to trying to build on that going forward.”

In his victory over New York last Sunday, Dobbins held the Yankees to three runs over five innings, two on a first-inning homer by Aaron Judge.

On Saturday night, Judge went 0-for-3 against him, striking out twice on curveballs.

“It was just kind of scouting,” Dobbins said of his game plan against New York’s slugger after Garrett Crochet struck him out three times in the series opener Friday.

“Crochet has an electric fastball. I can throw it hard, but the shape isn’t quite as elite,” he said. “So we knew we had better weapons to go at him with, so I felt like we did a good job of kind of keeping a balanced attack throughout the order.”

Dobbins struck out five and gave up only two singles Saturday.

Continue Reading

Sports

Rockies have worst 70-game mark since 1899

Published

on

By

Rockies have worst 70-game mark since 1899

ATLANTA — Kyle Farmer just shrugged when asked about being part of a Colorado Rockies team that has the fewest wins through 70 games since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.

“We don’t care,” Farmer said after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves left Colorado with a 13-57 record.

The Rockies have the fourth-fewest wins by any team through their first 70 decisions in a season in MLB history, and the fewest since the 1899 Spiders won 12 of their first 70 decisions. Colorado (.186 win percentage) is currently on pace to go 30-132 this season.

“I mean, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Farmer said. “It is what it is. We’ve just got to show up tomorrow and play. There’s nothing you can really say about it except that if it happens, it happens.”

The Rockies made more inglorious history by setting a franchise nine-inning record with 19 strikeouts. That’s a lot of futility for one team to absorb in one day.

The 19 strikeouts by Braves pitchers also set an Atlanta record for a nine-inning game. Spencer Strider recorded 13 strikeouts in six innings, followed by relievers Rafael Montero and Dylan Lee, who combined for six more whiffs.

The only bright spot for the Rockies was the encouraging start by rookie right-hander Chase Dollander, a native of Evans, Georgia, who allowed four runs, three earned, in six innings.

The Rockies have 10 fewer wins than the Chicago White Sox, who have the second-worst record in the majors at 23-48.

Dollander said “just having a neutral mindset” is the key to remaining positive through a season already filled with low points for the team.

“Don’t ride the roller coaster,” Dollander said. “You know, there’s going to be lots of ups and downs in this game. This game is really hard. So it’s just, you know, staying neutral and we just keep going.”

Dollander was the No. 9 overall pick in the 2023 summer draft. Among other top young players on the team are catcher Hunter Goodman, who might return to Atlanta for the All-Star Game on July 15, and outfielders Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle.

“You know we’re going to have our time,” Dollander said. “I mean, it’s just one of those things that you kind of learn as you go. I’ve been very fortunate to be here for a little bit now, and I can help us going forward.”

The 34-year-old Farmer said one of his jobs is to help the younger players endure the losses.

“For sure, keeping guys accountable and teaching them the right way to do stuff,” said Farmer, the first baseman whose double off Strider was one of only four hits for the Rockies.

“Keeping their heads up and they’ve got to show up each day and play, no matter our record. It’s your job and you worked your whole life to get here. Enjoy it. This is a great opportunity for a young guy to show what they can do.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Trending