ATLANTA -- Nearly 30 minutes after the Braves' season ended with a 4-1 loss to the Dodgers in Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday night, Ronald Acuña Jr. sat at his locker with his head down.
“It’s hard because I didn’t do anything for my team or my teammates,” Acuña said. “It’s the hardest time.”
Acuña went 3-for-24 with five walks and three stolen bases over seven postseason games. During the four games played against the Dodgers, he went 2-for-15 with two walks and one stolen base.
The five-time All-Star certainly wasn’t the only Braves player who struggled offensively over the past week. But given the greatness he has shown when healthy over the years, his struggles seemed magnified.
Unfortunately, frustration reached a point where Acuña was booed after grounding out in the seventh inning of Wednesday’s loss. Many of these same fans cheered him throughout his historic 2023 NL MVP season and down the stretch of the regular season, when he posted a .997 OPS over his final 26 games.
“That’s the first time that they boo me here at home, but I can’t control that,” Acuña said.
How did Acuña’s teammates react to the booing?
“Obviously I know he wants to come through in those situations,” Braves center fielder Michael Harris II said. “The playoffs are really hard because they try to take out the best players and game plan for them to be able to keep teams from catching momentum. They found ways to keep him quiet.”
Acuña tweaked his right knee while sliding into second base during Atlanta’s Game 2 win on Sunday at Dodger Stadium. The lingering soreness led the Braves to switch him from right field to the designated hitter spot about 90 minutes before the start of Tuesday’s Game 3.
Acuña wasn’t available to discuss his condition after the Braves’ Game 3 loss on Tuesday to go down 2-1 in this best-of-five series. Team officials revealed Wednesday afternoon he wasn’t in the clubhouse because he had left the stadium for an MRI exam.
Acuña said the knee didn’t impact his production over the past few days.
Some of the fans’ frustration may be because Acuña entered Wednesday with a .474 OPS over his past 10 postseason games (43 plate appearances) going back to 2023. That ranked 99th out of 111 players with at least 40 postseason plate appearances during this span.
Acuna has also not driven in a run in the Braves’ last 15 postseason games (53 at-bats), dating back to the 2022 NLDS.