Ronald Acuña Jr. Doing All He Can to Lift Braves

The Atlanta Braves went from a lineup where a majority of it deserved to be at the All-Star Game to arguably none of it does in the span of two years. One hitter, though, has stood out in a small sample since his return from injury -- right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr.

Acuña is doing all he can to elevate his team. He did it again Wednesday afternoon, going 3-for-5 with a two-run homer to give the Braves a four-run cushion in the fourth against the Milwaukee Brewers. That allowed the Braves to cruise to a 6-2 win behind Spencer Schwellenbach's complete game.

Acuña homered twice in the series at Milwaukee. He also launched a bomb in the 7-1 win Monday night that snapped the team's seven-end losing streak.

The right fielder's 7-for-14 (.500) with four RBI series in Milwaukee was a big reason why the Braves captured their first series win in weeks. But Acuña has been hitting well for a lot longer than just this week.

Since returning from the injured list on May 23, Acuña has posted seven multi-hit games. He has gone hitless in just three of 18 contests where he's played and posted a .353 batting average and .647 slugging percentage.

At this rate, Acuña is going to make the All-Star team even though he missed nearly the first two months of the season. He's been that good.

That's the great news for Atlanta. With Acuña producing at the top of the order as he did during his MVP season, there's hope with the Braves that the offense will ignite the team for a run over the next few weeks. The Braves need that to happen to stay in the playoff race.

But the bad news is Acuña is slashing .353/.436/.647 with six home runs, 11 RBI and 13 runs and yet the Braves are 5-13 when he plays this season.

It's a small sample, Acuña probably isn't going to hit .350, and the Braves will improve that record.

But Braves Country kept repeating early in the season that once Acuña returned, things would improve for the offense. Unfortunately, they are arguably worse, even with the series win versus the Brewers.

That, though, is not Acuña's fault. He has been doing all he can to pull the Braves out of their funk. Time will tell if that's exactly what he did in Milwaukee this week.