One Absurd Stat Fueling Ronald Acuña Jr.'s Insane Run for Braves

Ronald Acuña Jr. did his thing yet again in the Atlanta Braves' 3-2 win over the New York Mets. It's a vague way of putting it, but you know exactly what it means.

He went 2-for-5 with a home run and a stolen base in the winning effort. His solo shot in the top of the second to make it a 2-0 ballgame gave him his 13th multi-hit game of the season. On the surface, that number doesn't sound substantial, but then you remember he's only played in 28 games. Everyone looks to his home runs and stolen bases when discussing his MVP season for good reason - he was historic - but an overlooked aspect of his return to this form is the frequency of multi-hit games.

During his MVP-winning 2023 season, Acuña tallied 69 multi-hit games out of a total of 159 games played. This is a frequency of 43% of games. He's currently ever so slightly topping that rate to start his 2025 campaign (46% of games).

If he plays in all 113 possible games during the regular season, he would finish with 52 at his current pace. Over 159 games, he would have 73. These stats give further context to what he's capable of doing. There are home-run hitters. There are great contact hitters. Few can do both, and Acuña excels at both.

Acuña needs this high volume of multi-hit games to be able to keep his batting average hovering around the .400 mark and his on-base percentage at .500. Keep that in mind too, he's pulling a Ted Williams and reaching base, depending on the day, in half or more than half of his plate appearances.

These numbers don't just warrant an All-Star case. At this point, it's a gimme. If he had been healthy from the start this season, he'd be in the MVP consideration. It's Shohei Ohtani's award to lose, and Acuña is someone going forward, if he can stay healthy, capable of consistently challenging the two-way star for the award.

More From Atlanta Braves on SI