Ronald Acuna Jr. continued his impressive rookie season. In his Atlanta Braves’ 5-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday, he beat another lead-off Homun to set a franchise record.
Acuna hit a 1-0 pitch from Nick Kingham in the first inning, earning his seventh home run to start a game this season. He set the 1997 Braves season record. At that time Marquis Grissom succeeded.
In addition, with this home run Acuna also secured Nomar Garciaparra (1997) and Hanley Ramirez (2006) second place on the all-time list for rookies with lead-off homeruns in one season. The record holder is still Chris Young, who had achieved nine of them in 2007.
“You read all this on the scoreboard and I sit here and read it and don’t understand how good it all is,” commented Braves-Manager on his rookie outfielder’s performance. “You want to make sure you’re alert at the beginning of the game, otherwise you might miss something when he’s at the record.”
Acuna’s seventh lead-off Homun had an exit velocity of 109.7 miles per hour and flew 430 feet, according to Statcast. Acuna leads all rookies this season – together with Miguel Andujar of the Yankees – with 23 home runs and is considered the top favorite for the Rookie of the Year Award in the National League.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.