Acuña Jr. returns for the first goal and the Warriors regain their offensive engine

Ronald Acuña Jr. couldn't sleep all night when he learned that he would be removed from the injury list. And on Friday night at Chuist Park, he hit a home run with a record opener, and the opposing pitchers began to experience similar suffering.

"He's the kind of player you wouldn't even dare to leave the room for a beer because you could miss the legend at any moment," Warriors head coach Brian Snitker predicted before the game. Against Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta, Acuña Jr. made the first shot of the first game of his return to the game by blasting the ball 467 feet into the center-left outfield for his first home run since May 24, 2024, a full 364-day hiatus.

The return game against the Padres coincides with the one-year anniversary of a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the left knee (just three days shy of it). "To be honest, I barely closed my eyes last night," Ronald Acuña Jr. said through an interpreter, "and I couldn't wait to be on the pitch this morning, there was only joy at the moment." The original recovery plan called for him to play another triple-A rehab game, but after playing a full nine innings for Gwinnett on Wednesday, the medical team changed their decision on Thursday evening.

"I was in the dark when they suddenly told me I didn't have to go to pre-game batting practice in Louisville," Acuña Jr. recalled, "and I didn't know I was going straight back to the big leagues until I got the call." The return of the 2023 National League MVP has given life to the line, having just become the first player in MLB history to shoot 40 and 70 thieves in a single season two years ago, and all this after returning from a torn cruciate ligament in his right knee in 2021.

After major surgery on both knees, can the 30-year-old outfielder still create a myth? "Of course," Ronald Acuña Jr. replied confidently. Compared with the hasty comeback less than 10 months after the right knee surgery in 2022, the rehabilitation process is more cautious. "If it weren't for my first injury, I would have rushed again," he admits, "but this time we're going to make sure we're fully recovered." "

When the scoreboard showed a horrific shot at 98.6 mph and an elevation angle of 27 degrees, the boiling sound at Chuist Park proved that the nuclear warhead that terrified the pitcher had returned with full blood.