This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat publication. To learn the complete publication, click on right here. And subscribe to get it commonly in your inbox.
ATLANTA — Ronald Acuña Jr.’s bid to be within the beginning lineup for subsequent month’s All-Star Sport in Atlanta improved on Thursday, when he was one of many six Nationwide League outfielders who superior to Section 2 of the balloting course of.
Acuña completed third amongst NL outfielders in Section 1 of the balloting course of, ending behind the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong and the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández. The opposite three outfielders to advance have been the Cubs’ Kyle Tucker, the Dodgers’ Andy Pages and the Mets’ Juan Soto.
Vote totals won’t carry over to the subsequent part. The highest three vote-getters amongst these six gamers shall be elected to function the NL’s beginning outfielders.
Acuña is bidding to affix Hank Aaron and Dale Murphy as the one Braves to be elected to begin an All-Star Sport 5 occasions. The present Braves outfielder was within the NL’s beginning lineup in 2019, ’22 and ’23. He was elected to begin in ’21, however he tore his proper anterior cruciate ligament three days earlier than the sport.
Voting for the second part will run from midday ET on Monday till midday ET on Wednesday, July 2.
The All-Star Poll will proceed to be accessible completely on-line and through cellular gadgets at MLB.com/vote, all 30 membership web sites, the MLB App and the MLB Ballpark App. Followers might vote as soon as per day throughout Section 2, with the every day voting restrict resetting every day at midnight.
Winners shall be introduced on Wednesday stay on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET.
Acuña missed this season’s first 49 video games whereas finishing his restoration from the knee harm that value him the ultimate 4 months of the 2024 marketing campaign. However he has spent the previous month proving he stays one of many recreation’s elite gamers, even with two surgically repaired anterior cruciate ligaments.
Common: (2nd) .383, trailing solely Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich (.387)OBP: (1st) .500SLG: (third) .682, trailing Seattle’s Cal Raleigh (.781) and Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz (.699)OPS: (1st) 1.182Home runs: (T-Eleventh) 9
So, Acuña was main all NL outfielders in OBP, SLG and OPS since making his return to the highest of the Braves’ lineup. He was just some factors behind Yelich within the batting common class. The one NL outfielders to hit extra homers than him over the previous month have been the Mets’ Juan Soto (11) and the Nationals’ James Wooden (10).
Acuña’s complete may be increased if, like Soto, he would have had the chance to bat towards 20-year-old Didier Fuentes and since-demoted Austin Cox on Wednesday night time.
However Acuña is taking part in in addition to anyone might have anticipated. He exited Wednesday having constructed a 1.182 OPS by means of his first 30 video games of the season.
Right here is how that quantity ranked towards his different OPS marks by means of the primary 30 video games of a season:
2018: .7592019: .8792020: 1.0812021: 1.0832022: .9342023: 1.0352024: .7192025: 1.182
Acuña has already dedicated to taking part within the T-Cellular Dwelling Run Derby on July 14. He ought to create some power that night time. And the subsequent night time, he will surely really feel some power if he’s introduced as a part of the NL’s beginning lineup.
Aaron was the one Courageous who was within the beginning lineup when the All-Star Sport was first performed in Atlanta in 1972. Chipper Jones and Andres Galarraga have been the one Braves within the NL’s lineup when the sport returned to Atlanta in 2000.
Acuña appears destined to affix Aaron and Jones as probably the most iconic gamers, at the very least by way of place gamers, to ever put on a Braves uniform. So, it might actually be becoming for him to additionally expertise being within the lineup for an All-Star Sport in what’s now his city.
