Ozzie Albies Ronald Acuna Make Braves Great Again Shirt

PHILADELPHIA – The photos and GIFs are endearing, and if yous're an Atlanta Braves fan, downright reminiscent.

Become to Ozzie Albies' Twitter page – @albiesozzie97 – and yous can't help noticing how oft left fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. appears alongside him. Their rapport is obvious, and not merely online.

The ii ascent young players roomed together in the minors, have lockers next to each other on the road, get to the ballpark and leave together and live in the same Atlanta-expanse apartment complex.

"We're tight with each other like brothers,'' said Albies, a switch-striking second baseman. "I'm happy to have him on the squad. We talk nigh everything, on the field and off the field.''

Go back less than a decade and similar words were heard from Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman, shut friends in the minors who came upward in 2010 and ushered in a stretch of 3 postseason appearances in four years for Atlanta, after the club missed the playoffs the previous four seasons.

The Braves are now indelible some other such fallow period, and Albies and Acuña represent their best hope for non only reaching the postseason for the first fourth dimension since 2013, only perhaps fifty-fifty returning to the celebrity days when the club was winning 14 division crowns in a row.

Tuesday night's 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies improved the Braves' record to a National League-best 29-18 and bodacious them of leaving the City of Brotherly Love in outset place in the Eastward, a spot they've maintained well-nigh all of May.

"I definitely didn't run across it coming,'' general managing director Alex Anthopoulos said of the early surge. "I don't remember anybody could have. I thought it was possible considering at that place's a lot of young, talented players, simply I didn't know.''

There are many reasons for the emergence of a team generally regarded every bit at least a year away from contending in a division dominated in recent seasons past the powerful Washington Nationals.

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Veterans Freeman and Nick Markakis are enjoying first-class years, each boasting an OPS above .900. Starting pitchers Mike Foltynewicz and Sean Newcomb are living up to their billing as erstwhile start-round picks after previous stumbles, solidifying a rotation that has shaved more than than a run off last flavour's 4.80 ERA. And the relief corps are much improved equally well.

Only the kickoff ii games of the serial against the Phillies illustrated what makes the Braves become these days. A night after Albies and Acuña reached base a total of one fourth dimension in a shutout loss, they combined to become iv-for-9 with one RBI each Tuesday. Albies scored all iii runs, i on his 14th homer of the flavor – the 2nd-leading total in the league – another time drawing a bad throw by dashing to the plate on a bouncer with the infield in and the concluding one on an Acuña unmarried.

With their speed, power and hitting ability, they're as dynamic as a duo gets, and with plenty of room to grow.

Leadoff hitter Albies is 21, No. 2 hitter Acuña a year younger. Until the Nationals called up xix-twelvemonth-old Juan Soto on Sunday, they were the two youngest players in the majors.

Just 4 duos age 21 and younger have produced total seasons in which each sported an OPS-plus in a higher place 100, according to Major League Baseball. One of those was Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr in 1939.

 Acuña (112 OPS-plus) and Albies (117) are well on their way.

"For them to be twenty and 21 at the top of our lineup, it's almost unheard of,'' Freeman said. "They exercise something every single night that y'all just sit back and get, 'Wow.' When you lookout man them play the game, you don't think they're 20 and 21. They're above their years. They have fun playing the game. They make it fun to come up to the chiliad every day. They bring an energy into the clubhouse that's very refreshing.''

And that youthful energy just figures to become more prevalent. Height pitching prospect Mike Soroka, 20, made his major league debut on May i and put up a three.68 ERA in 3 starts before a shoulder strain sidelined him. Brazilian lefty Luiz Gohara, 21, is scheduled to start Wednesday.

Down on the farm, third baseman Austin Riley, the 41st overall selection in the 2015 draft, is knocking on the door after earning a promotion to Class AAA Gwinnett (Ga.) earlier this calendar month. Teammates Kolby Allard (two.02 ERA) and Max Fried (iii.80 ERA) are making a case for promotion too.

That puts the Braves, who opened a new ballpark concluding season and have merely $38 1000000 in salaries committed for next year, in prime number position to challenge for division supremacy well into the 2020s.

Albies, a 5-viii native of Curacao, was the first member of the new moving ridge to make a splash, batting .286 in 57 games and showing remarkable pop in the last 2 months of last season. That proved foreshadowing to a stunning power surge that has him ranked among the NL's elevation five in home runs, RBI (34) and slugging (.586). His 45 runs scored and 31 extra-base of operations hits are by far the league'southward highest totals.

"I'm non surprised. He'due south a fiddling guy with speed, but he has some pop too,'' said Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop, a countryman who sometimes works out with Albies in the offseason. "I did a dwelling house run derby with him and he nearly beat me. He's kind of like (Jose) Altuve: He'south small but can hit the ball out of the park.''

Acuña, considered baseball game's top prospect after trigger-happy through three small-scale-league levels at 19 last year, was called up April 25 and batted .326 over his showtime 11 games, condign the youngest Brave to hit a home run since Andruw Jones in 1996.

He soon found out life in the majors is non that like shooting fish in a barrel and fell into a 9-for-49 slump earlier his ii hits Tuesday. Overall, he's batting .260 with a .774 OPS.

The son of a longtime minor-league and Venezuelan league player, the younger Acuña doesn't seem fazed past the game's challenges, relying on his dad's advice.

"He always tells me that you lot have to play baseball game with a lot of middle,'' he said in Castilian, "keeping the same enthusiasm every day even when yous have ups and downs, and keeping a positive mind-set.''

Nobody will find that easier than Anthopoulos, who tin can count on at least five more years of team control on Albies and Acuña, in addition to having the consistently productive Freeman under contract through 2021.

The well-nigh difficult decision the GM may face in the upcoming months is whether to bolster the roster for a playoff run at the expense of prospects. Anthopoulos figures he has fourth dimension to make that evaluation, simply his players are enjoying this winning feeling and desire more.

Center fielder Ender Inciarte said it benefits the youngsters to join a club on the way up.

"It'south not similar we're withal rebuilding, waiting for the future,'' Inciarte said. "The future is at present, considering we have so much talent in the bullpen, then much talent in the lineup, and thankfully we're still a very young team. If we stay healthy and piece of work on the pocket-size things we have to keep to improve on, nosotros'll be a winning team like the Atlanta Braves had for many years.''

Contributing: Gabe Lacques in Baltimore

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Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2018/05/23/atlanta-braves-ozzie-albies-ronald-acuna-jr/636136002/

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