Ronald Acuna hits his longest Atlanta Braves home run
It didn’t take long for the Atlanta Braves to get a lead on the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole.
The Atlanta Braves face a difficult task in facing one of MLB’s best pitchers today in Gerrit Cole, but that didn’t stop Ronald Acuna Jr. from finding a pitch he liked in his first AB after returning from the Injured List.
Statcast data pegged this monster shot at 114.0 mph off the bat with a 31 degree launch angle… and “launch” was the word: almost 3/4ths of the way up in the left field bleachers.
The pitch was 97 mph on the outer edge of the strike zone, but as the FOX Sports South broadcast team had just noted, Cole “doesn’t walk anybody”, so with a full count, Acuna was ready to swing at a strike.
That 473-foot distance places his shot as the second-longest homer hit this season (Giancarlo Stanton at 483 is the longest so far).
Prior to this, Acuna’s longest homer had been a 2019 round-tripper traveling 466 feet. That one had an exit velocity of 115.9 mph.
That came on May 10 against the Diamondbacks and broke a tie in the 8th inning… ultimately being the winning run for the Atlanta Braves.
As noted, this was Acuna’s first plate appearance since returning from a sore wrist injury. It’s safe to say after that AB that his swing was on point despite the long layoff.
Meanwhile, Ian Anderson is off to an excellent start to his major league career, not allowing a baserunner through his first two innings. He’s now through 3 innings, yielding just 1 walk in the process while striking out three Yankees.
This is the first of two 7-inning games today… the first game still early in progress as we speak, with the Braves trying to extend the Yankee losing streak, currently at 3 games.
Fox Sports has the telecast.