The Atlanta Braves got a big offensive piece of their team back on Tuesday but lost another one.
Ronald Acuna Jr. returned to the lineup after missing 13 games with a strained left hamstring, but Drake Baldwin, who leads all catchers with 13 home runs, was placed on the 10-day injured list because of a right oblique strain.
Acuna was the designated hitter Tuesday when the Braves beat Miami 8-4 to even the four-game series at one game apiece. He had one hit, walked twice and scored three times and is batting .252 in 35 games this season after hitting .290 last year.
“It was great to have Ronald back,” Atlanta manager Walt Weiss said. “There’s an excitement when he’s in the game. He’s capable of doing things you maybe have never seen before, so there’s excitement when he’s at the top of the lineup.”
The teams will play again on Wednesday night, with Atlanta sending ace left-hander Chris Sale (6-3, 1.96 ERA) to oppose Miami right-hander Janson Junk (2-4, 4.14).
Sale has lost his last two starts despite allowing only four runs (two earned) in 13 combined innings. He has not faced the Marlins this year but is 0-2 with a 5.30 ERA in three career starts against them.
Junk is coming off a 7-2 loss to Tampa Bay on Friday, when he allowed a season-high seven earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. In six home starts, Junk is 1-2 with a 3.24 ERA.
He has faced the Braves just once in his career, giving up just one run and five hits over five innings in a 6-2 victory last June.
The Braves are running short at catcher with Baldwin out. On May 12, they lost Sean Murphy for at least eight weeks with a fractured left middle finger.
“It’s a mild strain, but that doesn’t mean I have a timeline right now,” Weiss said. “Obliques are always tricky, but I think we averted a major one here.”
Atlanta signed Sandy Leon when Murphy went down, and the veteran had been catching half of the games, with Baldwin splitting time at DH and behind the plate.
Baldwin’s injury caused the team to recall journeyman Chadwick Tromp from Triple-A Gwinnett, where he was batting .169 in 24 games.
The Marlins’ offense has come alive in this series. It scored 12 runs in the first game and four runs through three innings on Tuesday before being shut down. The Marlins were only 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position on Tuesday. The bright spots were Otto Lopez, who had three hits after being hitless on Monday, and Xavier Edwards, who has homered in back-to-back games.
“I thought for the most part of the game we had a lot of really competitive at-bats,” Miami manager Clayton McCullough said. “I think the guys did a nice job in the early part of the game, and then we ran into some good arms. We just weren’t able to pick up a two-out hit.”
The Braves reconfigured their pitching staff by sending rookie JR Ritchie back to Gwinnett and releasing left-hander Aaron Bummer. The team recalled right-hander Victor Mederos from Gwinnett and activated left-hander Dylan Dodd, who had missed 24 games with left thoracic spine inflammation.
The Braves acquired Mederos from the Los Angeles Angels in April for $250,000 in international bonus pool space.
-Field Level Media
