The Atlanta Braves’ National League MVP Ronald Acuna will miss the rest of the Major League Baseball season with a torn knee ligament, the team said Sunday.
The star outfielder was hurt in the first inning of the Braves’ 8-1 loss to the Pirates in Pittsburgh, where he led off the game with a double.
He had started toward third in an attempt to steal when his left knee buckled and he fell into the infield grass between the bases.
“I saw the catcher throwing the ball back to the pitcher very slow,” Acuna said. “I was timing that so I could steal third. But in that moment he threw it hard, so I had to come back, and that’s when I felt it.”
Acuna was down for several minutes, eventually limping off under his own power.
The Braves said he would have surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament at a date still to be determined.
It’s yet another injury blow for Acuna.
He tore the ACL in his right knee in 2021 and missed the second half of that season and part of 2022, although he finished 2022 with 15 home runs, 50 runs-batted-in and 29 stolen bases.
Last year he became the first player in MLB history to post 40 homers and 70 stolen bases as he was named NL MVP.
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