Ronald Acuna Jr. continues one of the best feel-good stories in sports

Baseball is better when Ronald Acuña Jr. is healthy. 

Now, after more than a year away the outfielder finally is. 

In a continued encore to his viral moment in his first game back (he homered on the first pitch he saw in over a year) Acuña Jr. homered again Saturday afternoon for the Braves. 

“I’m super happy, obviously,” he said through an interpreter after his first homer. “I had a feeling, but I think you can’t allow yourself to get caught up in the moment and you can’t anticipate it happening before it happens. Personally, it felt good to be back out there and things went well. But ultimately the team didn’t get the win, so that’s all that matters.”

“I mean, we’re talking first pitch he’s seen in the big leagues in almost a year,” said the Braves’ Chris Sale, who was upbeat despite his own fifth consecutive strong start (seven innings, four hits, one run) not leading to a win. “You probably had a packed house and a bunch of Braves fans halfway expecting something like that to happen.

Acuña also mentioned just how strenuous the work he did was in rehabbing his second torn ACL of his career. 

“That’s just a culmination of all the work that I’ve put in this entire time throughout the whole process with my legs, to prepare for those moments,” Acuña said, “to be able to react and move the way I did in those situations and to have full confidence in my legs and body.”

Baseball is better when Acuña Jr is back and at long last he finally is