Braves Briefing: Ronald Acuña Jr is the greatest hitter in baseball history to leadoff a game

Here's a look around MLB from an Atlanta Braves perspective

Atlanta dropped game two of their series to Seattle last night behind dominant starting pitching from this young Mariners staff and the inability for Atlanta's offense to break through with a big inning. They look to take the series on Sunday afternoon behind the left arm of Jared Shuster

Ronald Acuña Jr is legendarily great as a leadoff hitter

Acuña has been the leadoff hitter for this Braves team for a while - it's a way for the Braves offense to set the tone in a matchup and a role that he's obviously quite comfortable in. 

He's led off in all forty-five games this season, and in those at-bats, he's twenty-one of forty-one, with seven doubles and two homeruns, striking out three times and walking three times. 

That's a slash line of .512/.556/.829, which is absolutely unprecedented in baseball history. 

Ronald's gone on to steal seven of his eighteen bases in the first innings, which means that he's singlehandedly gotten himself in scoring position to open a game in twenty-eight of Atlanta's first forty-five contests on the 2023 season, scoring fourteen runs in those first innings. 

It goes a really long way to explaining Atlanta's third-best 0.80 runs/game in the first innings of games, with a total of thirty-six runs in those forty-five contests and just .01 runs/game off of the leaders, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Better be locked in from the first pitch if you're facing Atlanta. 

NL East Standings for Sunday, May 21st

It was a good day around the division, for the most part, as the three other teams that played all won their matchups - the Mets saw their game against the Guardians postponed and will be played as a doubleheader today. The highlight is probably Philly absolutely whalloping Jameson Taillon and the Chicago Cubs 12-3, as Kyle Schwarber hit a 1st inning grand slam and the Phillies scored six runs in the 1st, tagging Taillon for eight total runs (six earned) in his 2.1 innings of work. 

Team	Record	GB	Today
Braves	28-17	--	vs Mariners
Marlins	24-22	4.5	@ Giants
Mets	23-23	5.5	vs Guardians (DH)
Phillies	21-24	7.0	vs Cubs
Nationals	19-27	9.5	vs Tigers

We Wrote It

Braves Today writer Dan Strickland wrote our recap of last night's game, and had a prescient observation about Marcell Ozuna's May turnaround that bodes well for Atlanta's offensive ceiling if it sticks:

Marcell Ozuna had two hits tonight to keep a now seven game hitting streak alive. He has looked like a completely different player since the calendar rolled over to the month of May. He is now batting .200 on the year, with eight home runs and seventeen RBIs, but is an absurd .333/.414/.706 in May with six of his eight homeruns and fifteen RBIs.

Read the whole piece HERE

Highlights from Saturday night's Atlanta Braves loss to Seattle

How to watch the Atlanta Braves on Sunday, May 21st

Atlanta goes for the series victory with an afternoon matinee - first pitch is at 1:35 PM ET, with LHP Jared Shuster matching up against RHP George Kirby. The game broadcast, with Voice of the Braves Brandon Gaudin, is available inside Braves Country on Bally Sports Southeast/, and is available on MLB.TV outside of the broadcast area. The radio call, with Ben Ingram, is available locally on 680 AM/93.7 FM The Fan or outside the Atlanta market on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network or MLB.com.

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