ATLANTA — Near the end of batting practice Friday afternoon, Atlanta Braves hitting coach Tim Hyers was asked about Ronald Acuña Jr., preparing for his first game in nearly a year since knee surgery.
“What are the Vegas odds,” Hyers said, “that he swings at the first pitch?”
Not only did Acuña swing at the first pitch, but he also pulverized it, turning a 93 mph Nick Pivetta fastball over the middle of the plate into a resounding 467-foot line-drive home run that announced as loudly as humanly possible that Acuña was back. In at 93 mph, out at 115.5.
Braves manager Brian Snitker turned to bench coach Walt Weiss and said, “Did you think he wasn’t going to hit a homer on the first pitch?”
The first big-league pitch he’s seen in a nearly a year…
LA BESTIA IS BACK! pic.twitter.com/4SOWxliGgu
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 23, 2025
Acuña said he had envisioned hitting a first-pitch homer, since so many pitchers try to throw a fastball to get ahead in the count, even against him.
“I’m super happy, obviously,” he said through an interpreter. “I had a feeling, but I think you can’t allow yourself to get caught up in the moment and you can’t anticipate it happening before it happens. Personally, it felt good to be back out there and things went well. But ultimately the team didn’t get the win, so that’s all that matters.”
Yes, if you bet on the first-pitch swing, or even a leadoff homer by the man who now has 35 in his career, you won.
But if you bet on the Braves beating the San Diego Padres, you lost. In large part because Braves closer Raisel Iglesias gave up a tiebreaking homer to Manny Machado in the top of the ninth and pinch runner Eli White made a costly mistake in the bottom of the inning, one that left a sellout crowd — and Braves teammates and coaches — wondering what the heck happened.
The Padres’ 2-1 win snapped their six-game losing streak and extended San Diego’s winning streak against the Braves to seven, including a two-game sweep of their October Wild Card Series and a four-game sweep of this year’s season-opening series. White felt terrible about his mistake on a night the Braves had so much else to be pleased about but lost their third straight to slip to 24-26.
With one out and White pinch running for Alex Verdugo after a leadoff single and a fielder’s choice that advanced the runner, Ozzie Albies singled to center and White took off for third. But then, after nearly reaching the base, he misinterpreted third-base coach Matt Tuiasosopo’s hands-up sign, thinking the coach was telling him to turn back. Tuiasosopo was down the third-base line, and the sign was for White to hold up at third base.
Center fielder Jackson Merrill fielded the single on the hop and fired to cutoff man Luis Arraez between the mound and second base. Arraez, surprised to see White inexplicably racing back toward second, threw to shortstop Xander Bogaerts for the easy tag and second out, erasing the potential tying run that should’ve been at third with Michael Harris II coming up and surging Drake Baldwin ready to pinch hit.
“I thought I got a good read on it, turned my head and started running before the ball hit the ground, obviously, and just got confused for whatever reason when I saw Tui throw his hands up,” White said. “It was just a terrible mistake in a big situation.”
Snitker said, “(Tuiasosopo) is down the line, and if a third-base coach is down the line, that’s a sign that the runner needs to come around the bag and pick him up. … You can’t make mistakes in games like that. When they’re close games against good teams. We (also) did it to ourselves the other day. We’ve just got to get to where when we’re not scoring, we can’t make outs on the bases.”
White thought the ball was caught and that Tuiasosopo was telling him to get back to second.
“I got an early jump. I saw it go over the second baseman’s head, and I thought it was low, which ended up being a good read,” White said. “I just didn’t trust it. And for whatever reason, I just got confused. And I mean, I’ve had that play happen a thousand times in my career and never, never done that. It’s just a terrible, costly mistake right there.”
Minutes earlier, Machado homered off Iglesias to break a 1-1 tie. He was 0-for-7 with four strikeouts in his career against Iglesias before Friday. But this Iglesias is not the same as before, at least not the slider he continues to throw despite its being torched for home run after home run.
Iglesias has already given up seven homers (five on sliders) in 21 appearances and has a 5.75 ERA, after allowing just four homers in 66 appearances a year ago when he had a 1.95 ERA in 2024. Snitker said the Braves aren’t considering changing closers but will discuss Iglesias’ abandoning the slider for the time being.
Still, for one night, the Braves said they could focus on the positives after a painful loss because of what it meant in the bigger picture to have Acuña back and looking so good.
“I mean, we’re talking first pitch he’s seen in the big leagues in almost a year,” said the Braves’ Chris Sale, who was upbeat despite his own fifth consecutive strong start (seven innings, four hits, one run) not leading to a win. “You probably had a packed house and a bunch of Braves fans halfway expecting something like that to happen.
“That just kind of goes to who he is as a ballplayer and just the electricity he can create just on his own. So that was one of the cooler moments I’ve seen on the baseball field.”
It wasn’t just the home run. Acuña also had a 108.4 mph leadoff single in the third inning, nearly beat out an infield hit in the fifth and made several strong defensive plays, including a strong throw from the right-field corner on the fly to second base to cut down Elias Díaz trying to stretch a single into a double to start the eighth inning.
Cutting off balls in the outfield to hold two batters to singles, and running fluidly on the bases, was an indication of how good Acuña feels this time after rehabbing nearly a full year from ACL surgery — three months longer than he did after 2021 surgery for a right ACL tear.
He struggled with residual soreness and inflammation through the 2022 season after returning from that injury. This time, he and the Braves were determined to do everything possible to avoid a sluggish season in his first year back.
“That’s just a culmination of all the work that I’ve put in this entire time throughout the whole process with my legs, to prepare for those moments,” Acuña said, “to be able to react and move the way I did in those situations and to have full confidence in my legs and body.”
Leading off the first inning, Pivetta either missed his spot or missed the memo about the 2023 NL MVP being ultra-aggressive at the plate. Acuña is not the kind of hitter a pitcher can ease into a game against with a get-me-over fastball or breaking ball.
“No, they can’t,” Braves catcher Sean Murphy said. “It’s hairy for them right from the first pitch (against Acuña).”
Acuña doesn’t ease into anything, even after surgeries on each knee over three years.
“It’s like zero to a 100 real quick,” Braves third baseman Austin Riley said, smiling before Friday’s game as he discussed Acuña’s return. “So, it’ll be good to have him back. I think it just kind of sets the tone of the game, and really just sets the tone for that opposing pitcher — it’s like, hey, right out of the gate we’re coming out swinging. It takes a special someone to lead off; it’s a different bird. And he seems to love it. So, I expect some things to be pretty loud that first at-bat.”
It was loud indeed, both the ringing sound of the ball off Acuña’s bat and the subsequent roar from a crowd of 40,327, with most attendees in their seats earlier than usual on a traffic-clogged Friday in Atlanta. Fans came to back the team’s biggest and most popular star.
They’ve learned over the years not to be late to see Acuña, whose first swing sent a ball nearly halfway up the left-center bleachers.
(Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
