The Atlanta Braves topped the Washington Nationals 2-0 on Tuesday behind yet another home run from slugger Marcell Ozuna.
Ozuna, who has a 20-game on-base streak, is carrying the Braves' offense as they have dealt with injuries to key players, including last year's NL MVP, Ronald Acuna Jr. Ozuna leads the National League with 16 home runs. He's also hitting .309 with a 1.004 OPS.
After the game, Ozuna spoke about the Braves' injury situation, per the Associated Press:
“I have confidence all the time,” Ozuna said. “We have a very good team. We just lost Acuna. We can do nothing about it.”
Despite the injury issues that have seen the Braves lose Acuna and ace Spencer Strider for the season along with Austin Riley and Sean Murphy for significant chunks of time before recently returning, the Braves are still within reasonable distance of first place in the NL East. Atlanta currently sits just five games behind the red-hot Philadelphia Phillies.
A big reason for that is the performance of pitchers Chris Sale and Max Fried.
Fried allowed just seven hits with one walk and six strikeouts while finishing three outs shy of his second consecutive complete game and third of the season on Tuesday.
The Braves were helped by double plays in the first, fourth, sixth and seventh innings and his pickoff of Jesse Winker following his leadoff single in the fifth.
The two teams are back at it on Wednesday in Atlanta.
Ronald Acuna Jr. and Spencer Strider out for the rest of the Braves' season
In mid-April it was determined that Atlanta's ace pitcher Spencer Strider would miss the rest of the season after suffering a UCL elbow injury.
Strider's injury is not a UCL tear as originally thought but a bone fragment in the UCL. Strider said that the fragment originally developed during his 2019 Tommy John surgical procedure. He had an internal brace procedure done and will hopefully be back at full strength next season.
The Braves announced that outfielder Acuna Jr. has been ruled out for the remainder of the 2024 season after an MRI revealed a complete tear of the ACL in his left knee over the weekend.
There is no date yet, but Ronald Acuna Jr. will undergo surgery for the injury. He left the Braves' 8-1 win on Sunday after he was injured running the bases between second and third.
This is the second time that Acuna has had his season end due to an ACL tear. In mid-2021, Acuna tore his right ACL while trying to catch a ball in Miami against the Marlins. This time, it is his left knee.
Last time Acuna tore an ACL, the Braves made many acquisitions at the trade deadline to fill the holes in the outfield and went on to win the World Series over the Houston Astros. Acuna came back for the 2022 season, but it was clear that his injury was still impacting him. In 2023, that wasn't the case, as he won the MVP award in the National League.
Hopefully, Acuna's recovery is smooth this time and he can return at full strength in 2025
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