ATLANTA -- Giants center fielder Jung Hoo Lee didn’t think Ronald Acuña Jr. was going to try to score from first base and Braves third-base coach Fredi Gonzalez advised against completing the risky sprint. But this was yet another instance where Acuña’s talent defied logical thinking.
Acuña’s exciting dash from first to home in the fourth inning of a 9-5 win over the Giants on Monday night added to the heroics he has produced over the past four days at Truist Park. The Braves right fielder completed an inning-ending double play with an incredible flat-footed throw to third base on Friday night and he hit a 456-foot homer on Sunday.
“He can do what’s not normal,” Braves rookie catcher Drake Baldwin said. “He’s that kind of player and you see it every night.”
This sequence of jaw-dropping moments has further validated Acuña’s belief that he is every bit as dynamic as he was before having both his left anterior cruciate ligament and right ACL repaired within the past four years. He certainly didn’t look like somebody with two surgically repaired knees as he scored from first base on Baldwin’s single that Lee charged and fielded in right-center field.
“My objective every time I get on base is to find a way to score, no matter what,” Acuña said through an interpreter. “When I stepped on second, I was looking to the outfield, and I noticed that the center fielder was kind of far back. So by that point, I knew already that I was going to go for it.”
Acuña was still approximately 30 feet from third base when Lee grabbed the ball. Gonzalez had his hands high in the air, signaling for the Braves right fielder to stop. Lee threw to second base, assuming there wouldn’t be an attempt to score. But Acuña never broke stride as he raced through the stop sign and slid headfirst across the plate ahead of Patrick Bailey’s tag.
“He’s the one guy who can get away with stuff like that because he’s got the retro rockets,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He’s got another gear. That’s not the first time I’ve seen him do that. He’s got the burst in him. He runs really fast and then he can accelerate.”
Lee probably should have at least thrown the ball to first baseman Wilmer Flores, who was ready for a relay throw in the middle of the diamond. But the assumption Acuña wouldn’t run led Lee to throw to second base to prevent Baldwin from moving into scoring position.
“That’s bad communication is what it is,” Giants manager Doug Melvin said. “[Second baseman] Casey [Schmitt] has to let [Lee] know when he gets up. [Third baseman Matt Chapman] is trying to yell. Casey is trying to learn the position too. It’s just a bad look when you’re playing like that and something like that happens in a game like this where we look terrible. It’s just another instance today that was not a good look for us.”
Acuña’s talents also defied fundamental thinking on Friday night, when he caught a Cody Bellinger fly ball with his nose pointed toward the right-field foul line and then turned and fired a pinpoint strike to third base. The Yankees’ Jorbit Vivas tagged from second and didn’t know a throw had been made until third baseman Nacho Alvarez Jr. slyly tagged him.
With runners at first and second and Aaron Judge on deck, the conventional play would have been to throw to second base to prevent two runners from being in scoring position. But conventional thinking goes out the window when it comes to Acuña’s incredible tools.
Acuña drew one of the three straight walks Hayden Birdsong issued to begin the bottom of the first and scored on Baldwin’s three-run double. The Braves rookie catcher’s career-best six-RBI performance was also aided by the first-to-home sprint that added to Acuña's collection of great plays.
“The first thing I thought of was there’s no way he was at second base, I thought he was at first," Baldwin said. "And then I realized he was at first. When he runs, he can score from anywhere. He’s an electric player.”
Acuña has hit .328 with 13 home runs and a 1.060 OPS over the 49 games he has played since making his season debut on May 23. Judge (1.121) is the only qualified MLB player with a better OPS going back to that date. Acuña has positioned himself to bid for a 30-homer season despite missing most of the first two months.
Two years removed from becoming the only player to hit 40-plus homers and tally 70-plus stolen bases in a year, the 2023 National League MVP has just four steals thus far. But as Monday night’s game proved, this is not because his legs are no longer weapons.
“As I continue to develop and feel better physically, I'll probably continue to become more aggressive on the basepaths,” Acuña said. "I think that's just going to happen organically.”