Though the Braves’ record is closely matching their pace at this point last season, it’s been a surprisingly slow start for several stars like Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson and Austin Riley.
But on Sunday, it appeared that matters could have gotten even worse for the Braves.
After Acuña led off the game with a double off the wall against the Pirates, he went down with a non-contact knee injury a few pitches later when he buckled on an aggressive secondary lead. Acuña immediately fell to the ground in pain holding his left knee and was tagged out on the play. In 2021, Acuña’s MVP-caliber start to the season came to an end when he tore his right ACL. The worry here, though, was for the other knee.
Yet, when it came time for an update from the team, the Braves curiously downplayed the potential severity of Acuña’s injury. The team called it “left knee soreness” in a tweet.
Acuña was able to limp off the field on his own, so there might be some room for optimism. But soreness was one way to put it given that Acuña will likely require imaging away from PNC Park.
While fans obviously hoped that Acuña avoided serious injury, they were confused by the “soreness” tweet from the Braves. It looked a bit more concerning than soreness.