Preston Tucker doesn’t know how long he’ll be in left field for the Braves before phenom Ronald Acuna arrives, but the unheralded Florida native certainly is making the most of his opportunity.
Tucker hit a three-run homer off Nationals ace Max Scherzer to send the Braves to a 7-1, series-clinching win Wednesday afternoon at SunTrust Park, where the home crowds have seen the previously non-descript player hit three-run homers in the first inning of consecutive games and rack up eight RBIs in six games to rank among major league leaders.
“If I ever had a better week than this, it’s probably been a little while,” he said, smiling. “It feels good. I’m definitely getting off on the right foot to start the season. I’m going to try to ride this out as long as I can and try to keep putting together good at-bats.”
He became the first player in Braves franchise history to hit a three-run homer or grand slam in the first inning of consecutive games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Tucker is 9-for-21 (.429) with four extra-base hits, eight RBIs – second on the team to Freddie Freeman – and an .810 slugging percentage. Even Acuna, the consensus No. 1 prospect in baseball and arguably the best player in the Grapefruit League this spring before he was sent down to minor league camp, couldn’t have expected to do quite what Tucker has done in his first week with the Braves.
He hit a three-run homer in the first inning of Tuesday’s 13-6 rout of the Nationals, then came to bat with two out in the first inning Wednesday with two on after Nick Markakis reached on a fielding error by second baseman Wilmer Difo. Tucker fouled off a 1-2 cut fastball, the homered on a curveball.
“It’s huge,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of the hit. “Just take advantage of the error. Got a little breaking ball, caught too much of the plate probably. Those are just such huge hits against a guy like (Scherzer) to take advantage of an error.”
The homer staked Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz to a 3-0 lead on the way to a win that snapped his eight-start winless streak.
“It felt really good,” Tucker said. “You get to two strikes against a guy like that, you’re really just trying to put it in play, fight enough pitches off until you get a mistake. Fortunately I did just that and I took advantage of it and got a good pitch I could drive.”
The Braves were expected to delay Acuna’s major-league debut at least until April 14 in order to gain an extra year of contractual control. If Tucker can maintain any semblance of this offensive production it’s possible they could let Acuna play a little longer in Triple-A Gwinnett to get some more at-bats before his big-league debut, since the Triple-A season doesn’t start until Saturday.
Team officials haven’t indicated if Acuna will be called up April 14 or soon thereafter, but they are thrilled with the work done so far by Tucker, whose younger brother, Kyle, is an outfielder in the Astros organization and a consensus top-20 prospect in all of baseball.
Preston Tucker, 27, is six years older than Kyle and spent parts of two seasons in the majors with the Astros in 2015-16, batting just .219 with 17 homers and a .677 OPS in 467 plate appearances. But the Braves saw something they liked in him last season when he was in Triple-A, and since recovering from shoulder surgery that he put off for a while, Tucker is as strong as ever but more fluid in his swing.
It was one of the first moves made by Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos, who got Tucker in a largely overlooked trade the week before Christmas for cash or a player to be named later.
“I mean, this is our first look at him,” Braves hitting coach Kevin Seitzer said. “You hate to evaluate spring training, but we’ve had good cage time, good conversations. He’s taken stuff into the game and … I told him, when I watched video of him, he had the shoulder issue and when he was feeling good he was really big, hard, violent, like he was trying to hit it 10 miles. And I told him right at the end of spring training how impressed I was with how controlled he’s been. He’s stayed in the box and just used his hands and he’s done all right. I’m glad he’s been having good at-bats.”
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