The Atlanta Braves have struggled with consistency throughout the 2025 campaign, highlighted by their being 11 games under .500 as of Saturday morning. In other

That quest didn’t get off to a great start, as star outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. was a late scratch for the first game of the series on Tuesday night. The Braves called it a lower back injury that kept Acuna out of the game, according to a post from the team on social media.

Alvarez made his return to Gwinnett's lineup Friday after sitting out with an oblique injury, and he'll now move up to the majors to replace Austin Riley (abdomen) on the active roster. Alvarez has gone 3-for-30 across eight games in his MLB career, though he owns a 1.120 OPS through 12 Triple-A games this year.

The Braves haven't been shy about being cautious with Acuña. He's been pulled from a couple of games just to preserve his health. He left the 10-1 loss to the Rockies early simply because it was a blowout. He was removed from the 13-0 loss to the Phillies due to the weather, plus the game got out of hand early on.

Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado exited Friday night's game against the Braves after the sixth inning due to a sprained right index finger.

Meanwhile, Sale, the defending NL Cy Young Award winner, is out indefinitely with a fractured rib cage suffered two weeks ago. Strider completed a 12-month rehab from Tommy John elbow surgery, made one start and then missed five more weeks with a hamstring injury.

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson, who has not played since getting hit by a pitch on his left hand Tuesday against Atlanta, took batting practice on Friday for the first time since the injury and is expected to be in the lineup soon.

The Atlanta Braves opted for better safe than sorry with their superstar earlier this week and it paid off with Wednesday night's performance