When Ronald Acuna hit a two-run homer in the 11th inning Monday night to send the Braves to a 5-3 win against the Yankees, he became the youngest Brave to hit an extra-inning homer since Andruw Jones did it 21 years ago against Padres closer Trevor Hoffman.
Not coincidentally, Jones is the Brave with whom Acuna is most often compared by those who were around when the Braves’ former 10-time Gold Glove center fielder came up through the organization. People like Braves manager Brian Snitker, 62, who’s been in the organization for more than four decades.
“The talent level, the skill set, is really something else,” Snitker said Tuesday, reflecting on the latest moment in the 20-year-old outfielder’s steadily expanding highlight reel. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen somebody that gifted, just the total package. A lot of comparisons come back to when Andruw was young. He fits right in there with Andruw, Chipper (Jones), that crowd. I mean, as far as the skill set. He’s a very talented young man.”
With one out, Acuna fouled off a couple of two-strike pitches from reliever David Robertson, then hit the next pitch to the first row of the right-field bleachers, a two-run homer that skipped off the end of leaping, 6-foot-7 right fielder Aaron Judge’s glove.
It was the first homer by a right-handed batter against Robertson in more than 12 months, and the seventh homer for Acuna in 33 major league games, including two in four games since returning from a one-month stint on the disabled list for knee and back injuries.
Acuna, who also had a fourth-inning RBI double to give the Braves a 3-2 lead Monday, said he would put the 11th-inning homer atop his personal list of baseball moments to remember so far.
He was 20 years and 196 days old Monday -- 193 days older than Jones when he homered off Hoffman. The last major leaguer younger than Acuna to hit a game-winning homer in extra innings was future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera, a fellow Venezuelan. Cabrera was 20 years, 155 days old when he hit one as a Marlins rookie in 2003 off the Braves’ Will Cunnane.
Acuna is the first player younger than 21 to hit a game-winning homer in extra innings at Yankee Stadium – the first or current version of the stadium. The previous youngest was Minnesota’s Kent Hrbek, who was 21 when he hit one at the old park Aug. 24, 1981.
Acuna said after Monday’s game that he wasn’t nervous going to bat in the 11th inning, in front of a Yankees crowd of nearly 44,000, because he never gets nervous playing baseball. He said that’s because he just has fun playing the game.
“And he looks like it,” Snitker said. “I think back about Andruw, at 19, hitting homers here.”
Snitker was referring to Jones’ two homers in Game 1 of the 1996 World Series as a 19-year-old rookie.
“He’s the same type thing. When you’re that good, why would you be nervous?” Snitker said. “I mean, it’s something I’ll never feel, obviously.”
Snitker laughed at that. Then he continued, “Lot of us that knew Andruw at 16 and 17, this is the kid who we compare him to. You’re always asked in this business, who does he remind you of? That’s who he reminds me of, somebody like Andruw.”
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