Braves’ Acuña leaves game in Colorado with injury

In the second inning, facing Rockies pitcher Chase Dollander, Acuña hit a ground ball toward second. A few steps out of the batter’s box, he winced and grabbed for his left hamstring. He walked off the field with Weiss and trainer Jeff Stevenson.

Eli White took over for Acuña in right field in the bottom of the second. The Braves officially announced Acuña left the game with “hamstring tightness.”

“I don’t like the way it looked, and Ronnie’s starting to swing the bat,” Weiss said. “We’ll see what happens. Hopefully, if he is out, it’ll be short-term.”

Acuña had opened the game with a solid single to right field. In Friday’s win, Acuña went 2-for-4 with a walk, stolen base and a run scored.

The 28-year-old former MVP was hitting .248 with nine RBIs and two home runs going into Saturday’s game.

“You know the player he is and you know what’s happened in the past,” Braves catcher Drake Baldwin said. “Just hoping for the best because that would be a really tough person on the team to lose.”

A stint on the injured list would be more bad luck for Acuña, who played just 49 games in 2024, after winning the MVP in 2023, because of a torn ACL in his left knee. He tore an ACL in his right knee in 2021.

Acuña had played in all 33 games for the Braves this season, as well as seven games in spring training and seven games with Team Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic.

White, Mauricio Dubón and Jorge Mateo are some of the options to take reps in right field in Acuña’s absence. Center fielder Michael Harris II has been limited to being a designated hitter in recent days with a quad injury.

“We’ve got the versatility. We’ve been doing it all year,” Weiss said. “We’re very versatile, but you never like to be challenged like this, to lose, if it happens, one of your best players and most talented players. We’ll be OK. We’ll have some moving parts.”