Acuna and Albies earn early raves with Braves

PHILADELPHIA — Five things about the Braves’ dynamic young duo of Ronald Acuna and Ozzie Albies, who was the youngest player in the majors before Acuna arrived. 1. When Acuna and Albies each hit a home run Thursday at Cincinnati, they became the youngest major league teammates to homer in the same game since another pair of Braves, Bob Horner and Glenn Hubbard, did it in 1978, coincidentally also against the Reds. Acuna, who turned 20 on Dec. 18, is the youngest Brave to homer since Andruw Jones in 1996. 2. Albies, 11 months older than Acuna and in his first full season in the majors, enters Friday leading all major league hitters in extra-base hits (19) and total bases (66) and is tied with the Nationals’ Bryce Harper and Rockies’ Charlie Blackmon for the National League lead in home runs (eight). Albies is also tied with teammate Dansby Swanson and Colorado’s D J LeMahieu for the NL hits lead with 30, and tied for the NL lead in go-ahead RBIs with seven. 3. Acuna’s 94.9-mph average exit velocity on seven batted balls in his first two games would rank 16th in the majors, according to Statcast, if Acuna had enough batted balls to qualify (15 is the minimum). The 94.9 velocity would put him a few ticks behind Shohei Ohtani (95.5) and Mike Moustakas (95.1) and just ahead of Robinson Cano (94.7). The highest-ranked Brave in average exit velocity is Preston Tucker, who Acuna replaced in left field. Tucker was tied with the Dodgers’ Corey Seager for 46th in the majors with an average exit velocity of 92.8 mph entering Friday. 4. Albies’ 19 extra-base hits are a franchise record for March-April and the most in major league history before the end of April by a player age 21 or younger. The previous bests in the 21-and-under group were Albert Pujols’ 17 extra-base hits through the end of April 2001 and Bryce Harper’s 16 through the end of April 2013. 5. Albies still has three games left in April — a three-game series at Philadelphia starting Friday — and is just four extrabase hits shy of the major league record by former Brave Jermaine Dye, who had 23 extra-base hits through the end of April 2000 when he played for Kansas City.

Ronald Acuna, 20 since Dec. 18, is youngest Brave to homer since Andruw Jones in 1996.