Has Ronald Acuna Jr. performed his means into the NL MVP race?
So, sure, the New York Mets are a pleasant story, bouncing again from midseason despair to reel off a pleasant stretch that has put them again into the wild-card race.
You recognize what beats a pleasant story? Generational greatness coming into its personal. The Atlanta Braves cooled off the Mets with a 5-Three victory on Tuesday as Ronald Acuña Jr. displayed two his immense abilities. He swatted a house run within the fourth inning off Zack Wheeler and later threw out Todd Frazier at dwelling plate with a 99.1 mph laser from left discipline — simply the sixth outfield help this season with a throw that tracked 99 mph.
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Todd Frazier makes an attempt to attain from second, however Ronald Acuna Jr. throws him out at dwelling.
Acuña is 21 years previous and hitting .299/.378/.543 with 34 dwelling runs and 28 stolen bases. He leads the Nationwide League in runs (101), hits (147) and stolen bases (28). He’s fourth in dwelling runs and heating up in that class with 9 dwelling runs already in August. He’s tied for ninth in RBIs with 81, despite the fact that he has began 83 of his 120 video games within the leadoff spot. He’s a lock to turn into the primary 30-30 participant for the Braves since Ron Gant in 1991 and has an opportunity at turning into simply the fifth participant with 40 dwelling runs and 40 steals in the identical season, becoming a member of Jose Canseco (1988), Barry Bonds (1996), Alex Rodriguez (1998) and Alfonso Soriano (2006).
Briefly, he’s catching as much as Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich within the MVP race:
• Acuña: .294/.378/.543, 34 HR, 81 RBI, 101 R, 28 SB, 5.Zero/Four.eight WAR
• Bellinger: .316/.414/.663, 39 HR, 90 RBI, 93 R, 9 SB, 7.6/6.Three WAR
• Yelich: .333/.425/.699, 39 HR, 85 RBI, 83 R, 23 SB, 6.Zero/6.Four WAR
(WAR totals from Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs heading into Tuesday.)
To be truthful, we must always throw Ketel Marte in right here, as nicely:
• Marte: .315/.377/.558, 24 HR, 68 RBI, 78 R, eight SB, 5.Four/5.Three WAR
Bellinger and Yelich nonetheless appear to be the co-favorites, as each have huge edges in OBP and slugging proportion, serving to to place them atop the WAR leaderboard. Yelich and Bellinger additionally rank 1-2 in win chance added, so each have been clutch, as nicely. (Acuña is fifth, rating behind teammate Freddie Freeman and Bryce Harper.)
How quickly might Ronald Acuña Jr. declare Greatest Participant in Baseball title? Jeff Passan
Possibly the dialogue is not a lot that Acuña is the very best participant within the Nationwide League in 2019, however that he clearly has established that he’s going to be an MVP candidate for the following decade or so. Two areas of his sport particularly stand out:
First, his all-fields energy. He has hit 20 of his 34 dwelling runs to heart discipline or proper discipline. Solely Javier Baez and Yelich have hit extra opposite-field dwelling runs.
Second, he’s hitting .325/.377/.610 in opposition to breaking balls (curves and sliders), the second-highest batting common within the majors behind Andrew Benintendi and the fourth-highest wOBA behind Mike Trout and two Rockies.
Contemplating that off-speed pitches are sometimes the loss of life of younger gamers, particularly with two strikes, Acuña’s means to do harm on these pitches is a testomony to his superior means at such a younger age. That additionally means there’s room for enchancment, particularly in chopping down on the strikeouts, drawing a number of extra walks and doing a greater job in opposition to fastballs. He’s hitting .273/.373/.495 on four-seam and two-seam fastballs, rating 84th within the majors in wOBA out of 147 certified hitters. With expertise, he ought to get even higher at looking out fastballs.
Acuña now has 60 dwelling runs earlier than turning 22, tying him for fourth on that ledger with Ken Griffey Jr. and Frank Robinson, and trailing simply Eddie Mathews (72), Tony Conigliaro (84) and Mel Ott (86).
It is a enjoyable time to be a Braves fan. However all baseball followers can admire what we’re seeing from one of many sport’s most enjoyable gamers. Acuña is 21, an MVP candidate and in the course of an unimaginable scorching streak. He may not decelerate for an additional 11 or 12 years.
Ronald Acuna Jr. rakes his dwelling run Tuesday evening, however that wasn’t his solely feat of energy on this sport. Carmen Mandato/Getty Photos
Better of instances, worst of instances for Josh Hader: Good sport in Milwaukee because the Brewers scored 4 within the backside of the seventh to take a 5-Four lead, solely to see the Twins scored three within the prime of the eighth when Marwin Gonzalez hit a two-out, three-run homer off Josh Hader:
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Marwin Gonzalez wastes no time in opposition to Josh Hader as he swings for the fences on his first pitch and clobbers a three-run dwelling run.
Hader entered with two on and Gonzalez jumped on a 96 mph first-pitch fastball, so Hader solely bought credit score for a blown save as a substitute of a loss, however he continues to have a perplexing mixture of a season. He has a 2.91 ERA and 25 saves and 6 holds with these dominant peripheral stats: 103 strikeouts in 55⅔ innings. However he now has given up 13 dwelling runs and is 2-5 with 5 blown saves. A yr in the past, the Brewers have been 80-Three when main after seven innings. This yr they’re 49-5 — nonetheless good, however the bullpen hasn’t fairly been as a lot of a lockdown unit as in 2018.
There was a sample to Hader’s dwelling run drawback. Listed here are the 13 he has allowed:
2 Associated
Marwin Gonzalez: Zero-Zero fastball
Elvis Andrus: Zero-1 fastball
Matt Chapman: Zero-Zero fastball
Matt Olson: Zero-Zero fastball
Tyler Austin: Zero-Zero fastball
Brandon Crawford: Three-1 fastball
Eugenio Suarez: Three-1 fastball
Starling Marte: 1-Zero fastball
Freddie Freeman: 1-Zero fastball
Ian Desmond: 1-1 fastball
Cody Bellinger: 1-2 slider
Enrique Hernandez: Zero-2 fastball
Marcell Ozuna: Zero-Zero fastball
13 dwelling runs, 12 on fastballs, 5 on first-pitch fastballs. Hader’s slider is so unhittable that it is sensible hitters will nearly remove that pitch and search out a fastball. Hader has allowed 22 dwelling runs over the previous two seasons, 21 on fastballs. To be truthful, it is not like hitters are connecting all that usually — they’re hitting .157 off his fastball in 2019 — however once they do join, it too typically leaves the park. Hitters even have adjusted, swinging extra typically on his fastball this yr.
With the remainder of the bullpen predictably not pretty much as good, the Brewers wanted More durable to be close to excellent this season. He hasn’t and now leads an inventory you do not need to lead, probably the most go-ahead dwelling runs allowed within the eighth inning or later (since 1961):
Josh Hader, 2019 Brewers: eight
Chad Qualls, 2007 Astros: 7
Willie Hernandez, 1986 Tigers: 7
Bruce Sutter, 1985 Braves: 7
Have a day, Rafael Devers: The Twins leapfrogged over the Indians and again into first place because the Crimson Sox beat the Indians 7-6 in 10 innings. Jackie Bradley Jr. hit the go-ahead dwelling run within the prime of the 10th, however the Boston hero was Devers, who went 6-for-6 with 4 doubles. If you happen to really feel such as you’ve by no means seen that type of line, it is as a result of you have not! Devers is the primary participant in fashionable period (since 1900) to get six hits and 4 doubles in a sport. He now’s hitting .325/.373/.574 with 43 doubles.
The place there is a Will, there is a means: The Giants refuse to go away within the wild-card race, beating the A’s Three-2 as Will Smith closed it out. It was a 22-minute prime of the ninth, nevertheless, as Smith wanted 37 pitches to get the save. He walked Mark Canha with the bases loaded and two outs, however then struck out Chad Pinder to finish it. Madison Bumgarner allowed two hits and one run in seven innings, and the Giants now have received his previous six begins.
Sure, we had one other two-homer sport: Joe Posnanski has been writing concerning the stretch of consecutive days through which one participant has hit not less than two dwelling runs in a day. In truth, a lot to his horror, he dedicated to writing about it day-after-day so long as the streak continued. Gleyber Torres introduced us nearer to the report of 31 straight days (set earlier this season, Could Three-June 2) on Monday along with his two-homer sport, the 29th day in a row we had a two-homer sport. Effectively, we had three gamers do it on Tuesday: Will Smith of the Dodgers — it was a great evening for the Will Smiths of the baseball world — after which Kyle Seager and Tom Murphy of the Mariners (they went back-to-back twice). Murphy celebrated one in all his dwelling runs with a cartwheel within the dugout, and I do not know if Mariners have been laughing or crying about this:
Tom Murphy is a WHOLE MOOD. 😂 pic.twitter.com/ha1mDVjXTN
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 14, 2019
Murphy defined after the sport:
Murphy impressed by the scale of the dugouts in Detroit advised Laker earlier than the sport if he hit a house run he would do a cartwheel. Daughter is in gymnastics, had been doing them along with her.
— Shannon Drayer (@shannondrayer) August 14, 2019
Some followers weren’t so impressed:
I admire a great baseball-gymnastics crossover greater than anybody. As such, I am unable to assist however critique Tom Murphy’s cartwheel type and approach. The Mariners really want a gymnastics coach. I’ll do it totally free!
— Amanda Lane Cumming (@MarinerMandy) August 14, 2019
P.S.: It has been a protracted season for the Mariners.
Oh, Seager truly hit three dwelling runs. That is the third one, which says extra concerning the Tigers than it does Seager:
Nonetheless counts.
Kyle Seager turns into the 11th Mariner in franchise historical past with three dwelling runs in a sport. 👏 #TrueToTheBlue pic.twitter.com/n7SQa8ZoOH
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 14, 2019
Anyway, that is extra Mariners highlights than you in all probability wanted. That is now 19 three-homer video games this season, and we seem sure to see a brand new report damaged in that class, as nicely (22 in 2001).
P.P.S.: There have been quite a lot of dwelling runs this season.