Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. was removed from Tuesday night’s loss at Kansas City with tightness in his right Achilles tendon and will be placed on the 10-day injured list.
Acuña experienced the discomfort after chasing down a ball in right field. He’ll be evaluated further on Wednesday with an MRI in Atlanta.
“It’s an Achilles thing, it’s going to take a while,” manager Brian Snitker said after the Braves fell 9-6 to the Royals. “He’ll go on the IL and hopefully in 10 days or so it’ll clear up.”
Acuña said he initially felt pain while running the bases on Monday night.
“It happened when I scored from first to home on that play,” Acuña said through an interpreter. “They are going to examine me tomorrow so we’ll see how it goes.”
The discomfort returned after Acuña ran for a foul ball in the sixth inning Tuesday night. Later in the inning, a ball was hit over his head and he gave chase. He left the game after the sixth.
“It was hurting even more,” Acuña said through an interpreter. “I was kind of out there hoping they wouldn’t hit it my way and of course any time you do that, they always hit it your way.”
Acuña said the pain was worse than it was on Monday. “I told them yesterday and everyone said, ‘Take the day if you want it, you can have the day off,’” Acuña said. “I’ve missed so much time already through injuries I didn’t want to miss any more time.”
The five-time All-Star and 2023 National League MVP missed most of last season with a torn left ACL, and only returned to the Braves’ lineup on May 23 this season. In 2021, Acuña tore his right ACL in July, and missed the rest of the year before a late-April return in 2022.
“It’s an injury, I’m worried,” Acuña said. “It’s more pain, but it feels kind of, I feel it a lot when I try to put pressure on it.” Acuña did walk off the field before a trainer followed him into the locker room.
The Braves (45-61) have dealt with numerous injuries during their disappointing season.
“It’s just like, Ozzie (Albies) hit a ball into the dirt and it went in his eye,” Snitker said. “I was worried that that was an oblique the way he reacted there. I don’t know, it’s just one of those things, you just have to deal with it. It’s not fun dealing with it, not easy dealing with it, but you just have to.”
Acuña is batting .306/.429/.577 with 14 homers and 26 RBIs in 55 games this season. He went 2 for 4 with a homer on Monday night. Snitker said Eli White will play right field in Acuña’s absence.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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