BREAKING: Ronald Acuña Jr leaves game after getting hit by pitch in elbow
When it rains, it pours.
Ronald Acuña Jr has left tonight's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates after being hit by pitch on the elbow with a 98 mph fastball from reliever Colin Holderman.
Ronald was attended to by the medical trainer and left the game, appearing to be frustrated as he walked down the tunnel into the visitor's clubhouse.
The typical pitching strategy is to pitch him inside, as it's hard for him (and most players) to turn on an inside fastball and power it out for a home run. You can see the catcher Jason Delay set up inside, but the two-seamer ran a lot farther than expected.
This is the 44th time that Ronald Acuña Jr has been hit by a pitch in his career.
Forrest Wall replaced him as a pinch runner, and then took the field to play left field, with Kevin Pillar (who entered the game as a pinch-hitter for Eddie Rosario earlier in the inning) shifting from his usual left field to play right instead.
If Ronald Acuña Jr misses any sort of time with the injury, it opens some interesting questions for Atlanta. No other player has led off for the Braves this season, so who goes into the #1 spot becomes an interesting question. It's possible Atlanta makes one significant change with someone like Michael Harris II jumping into the #1 spot versus shifting multiple players into new spots in the lineup.
The other question becomes one of depth - Sam Hilliard is just now out on a rehab assignment for his heel injury, and so the outfielders on the active roster now are Rosario, Harris, Pillar and Wall. If Acuña misses time, the only other 40-man roster outfielder is utility man Luke Williams, newly claimed off waivers in June.
Does Atlanta use Nicky Lopez as a backup for the outfield, or make a transaction to add someone from AAA Gwinnett (possible Eli White or Dalton Guthrie) to the active roster?
We'll update this story as we learn more.
UPDATE: X-rays are negative, so Atlanta appears to possibly have avoided the worst-case scenario with this one.
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