Ronald Acuña Jr. left quite an impression on his Atlanta Braves teammates after hitting a mammoth home run on the first pitch he saw in nearly a year.
"You had a packed house of a bunch of Braves fans probably halfway expecting something like that to happen," left-hander Chris Sale said following Friday's 2-1 loss to the San Diego Padres, according to MLB.com's Mark Bowman.
"That just kind of goes to who he is as a player and the electricity he can create on his own. That was one of the cooler moments I've seen on the baseball field."
Acuña clobbered a first-pitch fastball from Padres starter Nick Pivetta 467 feet into the Truist Park bleachers, igniting his home crowd in the process.
(Source: MLB.com)
The plate appearance marked the first for the 27-year-old in 362 days since tearing the ACL in his left knee. He became the first player in AL/NL history to hit a leadoff homer in their first at-bat after missing at least 150 games, according to Bowman.
"He's one of those players where you better not go get a beer or anything because you might miss something cool," Braves manager Brian Snitker said. "He's that kind of force in the game. He's going to energize everybody."
Acuña went 2-for-4 in his return. The Venezuelan said postgame he was excited to finally get back on the field after such a long layoff but was left disappointed with the loss.
"I haven't been able to play with my teammates in over a year, and I haven't played in front of the fans in over a year," Acuña said. "It was great to be out there. But ultimately we lost, and that's all that matters."
