Braves dodge a bullet after Ronald Acuña HBP

The Braves prepared for the worst after star Ronald Acuña Jr. got hit by a pitch on Tuesday. To everyone’s relief, Acuña appears to have avoided serious injury.

The Atlanta Braves got lucky on Tuesday night.

The World Series contenders saw their star, Ronald Acuña Jr., get hit on his left elbow by a 97 mph pitch from Pirates’ Colin Holderman in the sixth inning. The Braves immediately pulled him out of the game.

A few innings later, it was announced that the X-rays came back negative for Acuña, allowing Braves fans to breathe a deep sigh of relief. The NL MVP frontrunner didn’t appear to have suffered any structural damage but did lose feeling in his arm, according to Braves manager Brian Snitker.

Snitker said of the incident:

"“I’m just glad nothing showed up (on the X-rays). I’d rather not take any chances on it by leaving him in the game and just let him go get treatment and see how he feels (Wednesday).”"

Braves’ Ronald Acuña avoided serious injury on Tuesday vs. Pirates

Atlanta is sitting comfortably atop the NL East with a 71-40 record, yet losing a superstar like Acuña to a dire injury would have been a terrible blow to morale.

Acuña, just a few feet ahead in the NL MVP race against ex-teammate Freddie Freeman, entered Tuesday with 25 homers and 67 RBIs, hitting .339. He led off the game with his 26th homer and may be trying to make history as the first player to reach 40 homers and 50 stolen bases in an MLB season (he already has 53 steals).

At the time of this writing, there was no indication that Acuña would miss any time. He is most likely considered day-to-day.

Having gotten such relieving injury news on Acuña, the Braves can turn their attention to staying consistent down the final stretch of the 2023 season.