ATLANTA -- With their season on the line, the Braves were thankful to have Ronald Acuña Jr. back in right field.
The Braves lineup for Game 4 of the NL Division Series against the Dodgers included Acuña in the second spot and playing right field. The 2023 NL MVP deemed himself ready to play the outfield after doing some running exercises a few hours before Wednesday night’s game at Truist Park.
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.
The results of the exam showed no structural damage.
“He’s just a little sore,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “If he’s limited, I think it’s minimally.”
Though Acuña produced a .997 OPS over his final 26 regular season games this year, he has faced a lot of criticism while going just 3-for-21 through his first six playoff games. Some of the frustration has to do with the fact he has a .474 OPS over his past 10 postseason games (43 plate appearances) going back to 2023. That ranks 99th out of 111 players who have compiled at least 40 postseason plate appearances during this span.
With Acuña back in right field, the Braves constructed a lineup that looked more formidable than the one used on Tuesday.
Instead of having Lane Thomas fill one of the outfield spots and start against Dodgers right-hander Tyler Glasnow, Weiss used Acuña (RF), Michael Harris II (CF) and Mike Yastrzemski (LF) as his outfielders. This allowed Mauricio Dubón to move from left field to shortstop. Ha-Seong Kim played short on Tuesday and exited the game mired in a 1-for-30 drought at the plate, going back to Sept. 12.
Not having to use Acuña as the DH also allowed Weiss to put Drake Baldwin in that role and have Sean Murphy serve as the catcher. Murphy has been behind the plate for each of the 10 starts that Game 4 starter Tyler Mahle has made since being acquired by the Braves from the Giants.