Ronald Acuna Jr. was placed on the injured list on Sunday morning due to a hamstring strain that he suffered the day before.
Acuna had come out of the Braves’ 9-1 win over the Rockies on Saturday after starting to limp in pain during the second inning when he was running out a ground ball he hit to second base.
Acuna had undergone an MRI in Denver to understand how severe the injury was and will now be on the IL with a left hamstring strain.
The MRI revealed a Grade 1 hamstring strain and Braves manager Walt Weiss said it “could have been a lot worse.”
“Not too serious, but serious enough that we had to put him on the list,” Weiss told reporters on Sunday. “It’s not going to be just a couple of days. It’s going to be more than, so we need to put him on the IL. Hopefully, it will be sooner than later. No idea with these soft tissue injuries, how long they’re going to take.
“But I think the silver lining is the MRI showed it wasn’t too serious.”
The Braves called up José Azócar to fill the spot left by Acuna.
The five-time All-Star was off to a slow start this season, slashing .252/.362/.378 over 152 plate appearances, while hitting just two home runs.
Atlanta has also dealt with its fair share of injuries this season, with the loss of Acuna being the latest one.
The Braves have eight pitchers listed on their IL as of Sunday, with a varying degree of injuries that they’re recovering from, which includes closer Raisel Iglesias, reliever Dylan Dodd and starter Spencer Schwellenbach.
The Braves won Sunday’s game 11-6 over the Rockies to take the weekend series.
Atlanta is in first place in the National League East with an 8 ½ game lead over the Marlins.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
