Nearly one year to the day after tearing the ACL in his left knee, Ronald Acuña Jr. has ben activated from the injured list and will very likely be making his return for the first time in 12 months.

For the Atlanta Braves, Acuña’s return can’t come soon enough. While Atlanta has grown used to figuring out how to survive without their superstar as they went through a long period of time without Acuña in 2021 when he tore the ACL in his right knee, it’s still clear that they’d much rather have him on the field than off of it. The Braves will be entering this game with the lowest outfield wRC+ in all of baseball — Atlanta’s outfielders have collectively hit .225/.273/.332 with a wOBA of .267 and a wRC+ of 66. For comparison’s sake, Acuña is a career .289/.379/.525 hitter with a wOBA of .384 and 141 wRC+. Anything even approaching that level of production from Acuña going forward would be sorely appreciated.

While this is going on, it won’t be like Acuña and the Braves will be getting an easy opponent to deal with on this momentous day. Nick Pivetta is coming into town with the Padres and while San Diego may be on a six-game slide at the moment, that’s not his fault. Pivetta only gave up one run in his last outing and outside of a shocking bad outing at Coors FIeld back on May 11, Pivetta has only given up three runs at the most in any of his other starts.

While he’s shown a tendency to get barreled up regularly while also having a hard time keeping the ball on the ground, it’s also clear that this hasn’t stopped him from finding success against opposing hitters, either. His fastball has proven very effective so far this season, to the point where his four-seam fastball is rated as having what is tied for the fifth-highest Run Value in baseball right now at 9. Needless to say, the Braves are going to have to find a way to crack the code of Pivetta’s heater if they’re going to have any success against him this evening.

Speaking of run value, Chris Sale’s slider has a Run Value of 8 at the moment, so it’s not like the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner is a slouch, either. In fact, Sale has been looking more like his normal self in recent times than he did to start the season. Now, the process is starting to pay off and show some results to where he’s getting deep into games without giving up a ton of runs while also striking out a lot of batters and walking very few. It’s a rudimentary path to success but it’s the path that Sale has been walking as of late.

Sale will also be looking to improve upon the start he made against San Diego back on Opening Day. A repeat of five innings with three runs allowed would honestly be a little disappointing since we know Sale is capable of doing a lot better than that, so we’ll see if Sale can indeed figure out a way to improve upon the work that he put in during that rough day on March 27.

Both of these teams are going to be lookign to bounce back from taking losses in their most recent games but the Padres in particular are especially desperate. San Diego is entering this game on a six-game losing streak, which is hard to imagine after the incredible start to the season that they made. Still, this is baseball and you’re bound to have peaks and valleys in any given season and the Padres have found their valley.

It’s just funny that it coincides with them taking a trip to face a team who they helped push into a seven-game losing streak, themselves. The Braves would be more-than-happy to help push San Diego’s losing streak to seven games and maybe with the help of their superstar finally returning to the field, the Braves will be able to put the Padres into a further state of sadness.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Friday, May 23, 7:15 p.m. ET

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA

TV: FanDuel Sports South/Southeast, Gray TV, MLB Network (out-of-market only)

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan