Acuna hits two leadoff home runs
Perfect games? Unassisted triple plays? They’re not even as rare as what Ronald Acuna Jr. pulled off Monday night.
His legend growing with each game, the 20-year-old rookie hit leadoff homers in both games of a doubleheader to lead the first-place Atlanta Braves to a sweep of the Miami Marlins.
Acuna appeared to be only the fourth player in baseball history to accomplish the feat, and certainly the youngest.
Two others, Rickey Henderson and Harry Hooper, are in the Hall of Fame.
By comparison, there have been 23 perfect games and 15 unassisted triple plays.
“It’s pretty special,” said Braves star Freddie Freeman, who also homered in Game 2. “He’s some kind of hot right now. What he’s doing at the plate, you just don’t see it very often.”
Acuna hit an opposite-field drive into the Braves’ bullpen in the opener, powering Atlanta to a 9-1 victory. Haitian-American Touki Toussaint pitched six strong innings to claim the win in his major league debut.
It was more of the same from Acuna in the nightcap. He sent a towering shot into the seats in left-centre, sparking the Braves to a 6-1 win behind another strong outing on the mound from Mike Foltynewicz.
Over the course of about nine hours, Acuna went 5-for8 with two homers, five RBIs, five runs, two walks and a stolen base.
“I just found out,” he said through a translator when asked if he knew about his unique double. “I give thanks to God for the opportunity to make history in my own sense.”
The Elias Sports Bureau said Baltimore’s Brady Anderson was the last to hit a pair of leadoff homers in one day against the Chicago White Sox on Aug. 21, 1999.
Before that, it was accomplished by Oakland’s Henderson against the Cleveland Indians on July 5, 1993. Hooper did it more than a century ago, playing for the Boston Red during a pair of games at the Washington Senators on May 20, 1913.
“Freddie and I were just kind of standing there smiling at each other like, ‘Again?’” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s been fun to watch.”
The Braves stretched their lead in the NL East to a full game over idle Philadelphia.
It was a totally forgettable day and night for the hapless Marlins, who struggled in all phases of the game. Poor hitting. Shaky pitching. Shoddy baserunning. Sloppy defence.