Acuña, Kim Progressing Toward Return to Braves Down in Gwinnett

Ronald Acuña Jr. and Ha-Seong Kim move further along in their rehab assignments up in Gwinnett, the Atlanta Braves' Triple-A team. Both tallied hits in a losing effort against the Iowa Cubs.

On paper, a team with Acuña, Kim, Andrew McCutchen, Carlos Santana and Rowdy Tellez shouldn't have much trouble against Triple-A pitching, but here we are. As a lineup, they went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

Both finished 1-for-4 on the night, but Kim tallied a double. Defensively, Kim had a hiccup with an error at shortstop.

Acuña is working his way back from a hamstring injury, and Kim is recovering from right middle inflammation. Both are on the 10-day injured list.

The Braves have been solid at the plate since they got back from the All-Star break, but having Acuña's presence back in particular is one that the team is eager to get back.

"It's tought to replace," Braves third baseman Austin Riley said. "It's hard to replace Ronald when he's firing on all cylinders. We're swinging the bat well right now and to get him back healthy and what he can do just, it's going to be a lot more pressure on the opposing pitchers."

Over 53 games played, Acuña is batting .251 with a .793 OPS with seven home runs, 22 RBIs and 15 stolen bases on 22 attempts.

The Braves are hopeful he can return before the end of this current homestand. Over the weekend, manager Walt Weiss said Acuña needed a few more games.

Without him, it's been up to mainly Eli White, Mike Yastrzemski to man the right field corner. After Yastrzemski, too, went down with an injury, Brewer Hicklen was called up and he's since gotten the job done. He's 5-for-11 with three doubles, two RBIs and two walks in three games, all playing right field.

Looking ahead, when the time comes that Kim returns, we'll see if he can shake the rust off this time around. His first return to the team saw him have five hits over 73 at-bats (.068). He didn't have much of a ramp up before, playing about a week or so in the minors before being activated.

He looked like someone who hadn't had any semblance of a spring training, so the Braves would be doing him and themselves a service by giving him the time to get going.

For now, prospect shortstop Jim Jarvis has been a breath of fresh air since he was called back up at the beginning of July. He had a two-hit night on Tuesday, including a two-run triple. The on-base machine has kept the pace seen down in Gwinnett, reaching base in nine of 13 games and batting .302 in that span.

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