{"id":596956,"date":"2026-02-27T22:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/596956\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T22:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:40:16","slug":"ronald-acuna-jr-hits-grand-slam-as-braves-offense-looks-hopeful-in-win-against-red-sox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/596956\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. hits grand slam as Braves\u2019 offense looks hopeful in win against Red Sox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just officially a month away from the Atlanta Braves\u2019 opening day, the team\u2019s offense is showing glimpses of high intensity and promise that fans are hoping will carry over into the regular season. Taking the win (15-8) against Boston, they\u2019re ending the first full Spring Training week on a high note and ready to build on their momentum.<\/p>\n

The headlines speak for themselves. Not missing a beat, Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr., going 2-for-3 in his plate appearance, not only showed consistent quickness as he picked back up on his base-stealing, but he also collected his first homer <\/a>of the spring that resulted in a grand slam to bring in Michael Harris II, Jonah Heim and Jorge Mateo, extending the Braves\u2019 lead by nine runs (12-3) in the bottom of the third.<\/p>\n

A force that continued to make noise in the Braves\u2019 offense was Mike Yastremski, also going 3-for-3 and collecting two homers and three RBI\u2019s of his own. This piece seems to be a smart move for the Braves\u2019 front office, as his offensive prowess could help move the needle for the team as a whole and continue to put runs on the board to extend their campaign.<\/p>\n

On the pitching side, Chris Sale is coming off just two innings with electric movement on the mound in his first appearance this past Sunday. In today\u2019s matchup, it seems it wasn\u2019t as strong a performance, only staying out for 2.2 innings; he gave up three earned runs that included two homers; however, he also collected three strikeouts to end the day. Though fans would like to see Sale out longer and more power in his arsenal that he\u2019s displayed just last weekend, it\u2019s still early enough in Spring Training to deem these innings as warmups to allow just enough of a feel against the competition.<\/p>\n

Was this Sale\u2019s best start? Not even close, but is it time to panic? Not at all. The impactful lefty is taking each opportunity as it comes and making adjustments when needed. It was after a two-run homer from Boston\u2019s Ceddanne Rafaela that relief pitcher Darius Vine subbed in to take the mound.<\/p>\n

One of the arguably most exciting additions to the team, Robert Su\u00e1rez, also made his spring debut in today\u2019s game. The former Padres\u2019 closer reached 100 mph multiple times on the radar gun and almost struck out the side if not for giving up a single from a Red Sox outfielder (Braiden Ward) before reaching 100.1 mph on a four-seamer to end the inning and his stint on the mound (1 IP\/ 1 H\/ 0 ER\/ 0 BB\/ 1 K). Aaron Bummer came in to replace him at the top of the sixth.<\/p>\n

Braves country, if there\u2019s one thing to take away from this game, it\u2019s that the offense as a whole would\u2019ve made you beyond proud, and building excitement going into the regular season if they keep up with this momentum. Could this be a sneak peak on what we should expect in exactly one month from today?<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, the fun continues as the Braves take on the Orioles with Spencer Strider taking the mound.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just officially a month away from the Atlanta Braves\u2019 opening day, the team\u2019s offense is showing glimpses of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,76628,73042,4166,5,192,4],"class_list":["post-596956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-braves","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-atlanta-braves-scores","tag-atlanta-braves-spring-training","tag-atlantabraves","tag-baseball","tag-braves","tag-mlb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116145004758489529","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}