Atlanta Braves Recap: Acuna, Albies Homer as Braves Beat the Reds 7-4

It was get-a-way day in Cincy today – baseball in the daylight as ‘it was meant to be played’.  But the Braves are now playing a new and unique brand of their own.

The Atlanta Braves entered today’s game today looking to earn a 2-2 series split with the Cincinnati Reds after falling behind 0-2 in the first two games. After the highly anticipated MLB debut of Ronald Acuña Jr. yesterday, all eyes were on him to see how he would do in his second career game.

Let’s just say he did not disappoint…

Acuña’s first career HR was a moonshot to LF and was caught by a Braves fan, Joe Webster, whose reaction perfectly portrays what all of Braves country was feeling at that moment.

Newcomb Sharp Until the 5th

Sean Newcomb looked in complete control of the game through the first four innings. However, in the 5th he started to lose his command and couldn’t hit his spots. He went on to allow 4 runs that inning, 3 of those coming off a Joey Votto 3 run blast.

Newcomb finished the game going 6.0 innings, allowing those 4 runs on 5 hits and three walks, striking out 7. He also helped himself with the bat getting a sharp single down the left field line and later scored on Ozzie Albies 8th HR this season…

Albies Makes History

That 2-run HR was a record-setting hit as Albies becomes the franchise leader in XBH (18) in the month of April. It was also the first time the two youngest players in MLB both hit a HR in the same day since 1978.

ED. FACT CHECK –

• On Sep. 23, 1978, Horner was 21 year, 1 month and 17 days old.  Hubbard was 2 days short of his 21st birthday.
• Albies is now 21 years, 3 months, 19 days old… more than Horner (then) by 2 months and 2 days.  Acuña is close to 8 months younger than all of them.
• If you add the ages, then this is the youngest teammate duo to homer in the same game.  If you use MLBPipeline’s view, it’s Horner and Hubbard.
• Either way, the respective dynamic duos are both alliterative and Braves’ players.

The Braves were able to take the lead in the top of the 8th after Freddie Freeman hit his THIRD double of the game, later scoring on an Acuña bloop double.  Acuña was able to fly around the bases and score on a sharp RBI single by Dansby Swanson.

The Bullpen

After struggling to throw strikes all season the Braves bullpen was able to come in and shut down the last three innings without issuing a single walk. They were also given an extra run to their lead after Ender Inciarte scored on an Albies double in the top of the 9th. That makes 19 XBH for Ozzie extending his franchise record.

Freeman (1-1, 4.91 ERA) was able to earned the win and Vizcaino (1-1, 1.69 ERA) his second save of the season, as the bullpen looked more locked in.  Funny to see Freeman get that ‘W’ after recently breaking his streak of appearances without a loss – the (then) longest in the majors.

Top Performers

Braves

• Albies, 2B- 2-5, R, 2B, HR, 3 RBI
• Acuña Jr. LF- 3-4, 2 R, 2B, HR, 2 RBI
• Freeman, 1B- 3-4, IBB, 2 R, 3 2B

Reds

• Peraza, SS- 1-4, R, RBI
• Votto, 1B- 1-4, R, HR, 3 RBI

Whats Next

After starting off the current road trip on a bad 0-2 start, the Braves were able to rebound, splitting the series 2-2.  Atlanta, now 14-10, will hope to ride this momentum into Philadelphia for a three game series versus the 15-9 Phillies.

Next: More on Acuña's 1st homer here

Here’s the start time and projected starters for the upcoming series:

• Fri, April 27th, 7:05 ET- Teheran (1-1, 4.00 ERA) v. Nola (2-1, 2.30 ERA)
• Sat, April 28th, 6:05 ET- Foltynewicz (1-1, 2.77 ERA) v. Pivetta (1-0, 2.57 ERA)
• Sun, April 29th, 1:35 ET- TBD v. Velasquez (1-3, 4.50 ERA)