Today's Three Things: When You Have Ronald Acuña Jr., There's Always a Way
Atlanta's former MVP flashed all of his tools in a series-clinching win over the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night
The Atlanta Braves won their series against the Cincinnati Reds with a 5-2 victory in Great American Ball Park on Saturday night.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
I’m struggling here.
If you’re looking at this game from strictly a “biggest change to win probability” standpoint, it was likely Jorge Mateo’s 5th-inning solo homer.
That homer pushed Atlanta’s chances of winning the game over 50%, and it wouldn’t fall back below 50% for the rest of the contest.
But at the moment, it felt like the bottom of the fourth inning.
The game was tied at 2-2 and Elly De La Cruz had just hit a triple to the right field corner. It was a good piece of hitting, lacing a 3-2 backdoor cutter down the line and getting a fortuitous bounce out of the corner.
Martín Pérez was unimpressed.
The veteran lefty went back on the attack, getting Sal Stewart to hit a soft grounder to Mauricio Dubón at third; after looking back De La Cruz, Dubón made the throw to Matt Olson at first for the second out of the inning. Pérez then got Eugenio Suarez to strikeout through a great combination of locations and sequencing - he mixed various fastballs up and/or inside, getting ahead of Suarez 1-2, before watching Suarez hold off on two changeups down and away. Pérez then came back up and in with a sinker just above the zone, with Suarez clearly expecting a cutter in and swinging through the sinker, which ran back over the plate.
It’s not a common usage of a sinker, but if it was intentional, just a fantastic combination of pitch and location to get out of a jam. Atlanta would go on to score a run in the next inning and never trail for the rest of this one.
Today’s Player of the Game
Running away with over 92% of the vote, it’s Ronald Acuña Jr.
Atlanta’s former MVP continued his torrid stretch this week, hitting two homers while stealing two bags and drawing a walk. Per OptaStats, Ronald is the first player in MLB’s Modern Era (since 1900) to have four home runs, four stolen bases, and four walks over a three-game span.
The way Ronald hit the homers is notable - both of them coming off early count sinkers. The process on the stolen bases was notable, as well - both coming in the same at-bat, over a span of four pitches.
To think that the 2026 Atlanta Braves could both be the first team in MLB to 40 wins and to do it before June 1st for the first time in the franchise’s long and storied history, mostly without this version of Ronald Acuña Jr. That should strike fear in the rest of Major League Baseball.
What You’ll Be Talking About
With all due respect to the bullpen continuing to impress, with four innings of scoreless and walkless relief with one hit and three strikeouts, we need to talk about shortstop Jorge Mateo.
The offseason free agent made his third consecutive start at short tonight, just days after manager Walt Weiss declared that the position would be handled on a “day-to-day” basis after the early struggles of Ha-Seong Kim. But after hitting a home run tonight and flashing his impressive physical tools, including a cannon of a throw to get speedster Elly De La Cruz on a batted ball up the middle and beating out a throw to first with league-leading sprint speed, Walt Weiss admitted the coaching staff won’t be pulling Mateo out of the lineup anytime soon.
“(If) he’s swinging the bat like this, it’s tough to take him out (of the lineup)”, Weiss told Jesús Cano of The Athletic after the game. While Mateo’s .420 BABIP won’t continue all season, I’d imagine the Braves will find ways to continue getting him at-bats until the regression monster catches up to him.
After tonight’s home run, Mateo is hitting .316/.358/.487 across his first 76 at-bats of the season and is in line to get significantly more over the coming days.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Here’s tonight’s Postcast, with me and Locked On Braves host Jake Mastroianni, as we went live to break down the contest.
What’s Next for the Braves?
Atlanta’s already won the series and is in position to pick up the sweep. Spencer Strider (3-0, 3.46) gets the ball tomorrow, facing off with LHP Nick Lodolo (1-1, 5.57) at 1:40 PM ET.
(Programming note: Auburn’s elimination game in the Auburn Regional is scheduled for 2:00PM, so there won’t be a Postcast on Sunday and the game recap might be delayed.)