ATLANTA — Marcell Ozuna is about to complete the best 12-month stretch of his major-league career, and the Atlanta Braves designated hitter hopes to have more opportunities like this for years to come. He told The Athletic he hopes to sign an extension with the Braves to carry him beyond this season, the last guaranteed year of his contract.
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Ozuna’s two-run double in the fourth inning Friday night raised his majors-leading RBI total to 31 in 24 games, gave Atlanta a lead it wouldn’t relinquish in a series-opening 6-2 win against the Cleveland Guardians, and moved him past Braves icons Chipper Jones and Dale Murphy for most runs batted in by a Brave before May 1 since RBIs became an official stat in 1920.
It was the 10th win in 11 games for the Braves, who have baseball’s best record (18-6) and its most powerful offense, led by Ozuna.
“He just looked at me after that inning where they scored (a run), and he was like, ‘Hey, we’ve got you.’ And I was just like, ‘Yeah, I know,’” said Braves pitcher Chris Sale, who gave up a leadoff homer to Steven Kwan in the first inning but only one more hit and one walk in his third consecutive seven-inning start. He left with a 6-1 lead and six strikeouts.
“For (Ozuna), just an absolute monster month,” Sale said. “I don’t know if anybody around the league has done even close to what he’s doing. I heard something wild tonight, that he’s on pace for, like, over 200 RBIs. Let me get a sip out of that cup and keep filling him up.”
Another outstanding start by a #Braves pitcher in a homestand filled with them: Sale 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HR. (95/67)
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) April 27, 2024
Ozuna and the Braves still have four games to play before May 1, which is also the end of a calendar year since he began a surge that has gone unabated, with only two stretches of more than two hitless games in a row in 12 months.
He has only three hitless games this season and is batting .344. Ozuna ranks second in the National League in slugging percentage (.677) and third in OPS (1.096). Since May 1, Ozuna leads the majors with 129 RBIs in 150 games and is tied with the Philadelphia Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber for the second-most homers (47) during that span, behind only Braves teammate Matt Olson (49).
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A few hours before Friday’s game, Ozuna was asked about potentially staying beyond this season with the Braves, who hold a $16 million club option on his contract for 2025 with a $1 million buyout.
“Yeah, there’s no way you want to go explore somewhere else when you feel comfortable, when you’ve got your teammates and you’ve got your organization’s love,” Ozuna said. “There’s no doubt in my decision. I don’t want to go anywhere else.”
Ozuna, 33, is making $18 million this season in the final guaranteed year of a four-year, $64 million contract. He signed that deal with the Braves in February 2021 after leading the NL with 18 homers and 56 RBIs for Atlanta in the pandemic-shortened 60-game 2020 season.
The first two seasons of the contract were the worst of his career, with a .222 average and .675 OPS in 172 games played during 2021-2022. But after a dreadful start to the 2023 season — he hit .085 with a .397 OPS in April — Ozuna had five hits, two homers and five RBIs in a two-game span on May 2 and May 3. He hasn’t cooled, batting .297 with 38 homers and a .905 OPS in his last 126 games of 2023 and hitting with even more proficiency through this season’s first month.
“I don’t have the struggles that I had before; I don’t have too many things on my mind,” Ozuna said. “Right now I play with a clear mind, which is way better. When you had to go out there and you hear those boos, that was on my mind. And I said to myself, ‘Chill out and do what you need to do. You know you can hit, and they give you the opportunity.’”
Until this week, the most RBIs by any Brave before May in more than a century since RBIs became an official stat was 29 driven in by two-time NL MVP Murphy in 19 April games in 1985, and 29 by Hall of Famer Jones in 27 March-April games in 1998.
Ozuna moved ahead of them with a two-run double to give the Braves a 2-1 lead. He scored two batters later on a double by Michael Harris II. The Braves added to the lead in the fifth inning when Olson singled to drive in Ozzie Albies, who doubled in his first game back from a 10-day stint on the injured list for a broken big toe.
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Albies added an RBI single in the sixth to extend the lead to 5-1, and Orlando Arcia homered in the eighth.
“We can get shut out for seven innings and still score in bunches,” Sale said. “And on the flip side, let’s say we have a tough game and don’t score a lot. You know numbers don’t lie, it’s gonna happen, so you’re almost anticipating the next day. Like, let’s get to bed and wake up so tomorrow we can come here because something’s going to happen.”
Sale had six strikeouts and improved to 3-1, lowering his ERA to 3.69 with the sixth quality start by a Braves pitcher in the first seven games of a nine-game homestand. The lanky lefty threw 67 strikes in 92 pitches.
Sale, relying heavily on his mid-90s fastball and devastating slider, again looked more like the pitcher who had seven consecutive American League All-Star appearances from 2012 to 2018 with six consecutive top-five Cy Young Award finishes than the one beset by injuries and limited to 31 starts in a four-year span through 2023 with the Boston Red Sox.
“I said it when we first got him: You know the guy that he is, the competitor that he is,” Olson said. “He’s going to go out there and compete with what he’s got that day, and his stuff’s been great. Mixing it up well, keeping dudes off-balance, and we know the funky angle (arm slot). It’s been fun to play behind him.”
Vogt remembers Atlanta fondly
In the last game Stephen Vogt played at Truist Park, in September 2021, he hit two homers for the Braves before leaving in agony with a then-unspecified injury that ultimately required sports hernia surgery a few weeks later, just as the Braves were beginning their march to the World Series title that fall.
Before his first game at Truist Park as first-year manager of the Cleveland Guardians on Friday, Vogt’s recollections of his three-month stint with the Braves three years ago were anything but painful.
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“This will always be a special place for me,” said Vogt, 39. He noted how great the clubhouse chemistry was for the Braves, a sub-.500 team into August that season before coming together after a series of July trades, including the one that brought Vogt from the Arizona Diamondbacks and three others who remade an injury-riddled outfield.
And he pointed to the leadership of manager Brian Snitker, a big influence on his career.
“When you win with a group of people, you get very, very close,” Vogt said. “And a lot of people across the way that are very special. Brian Snitker, one of my big mentors — I wasn’t with them long enough to really get the full experience, but I learned so much from him just in the short stint. I could go on and on with a bunch of names.”
Though Vogt hit just .187 with two homers and eight RBIs in 26 games for the Braves, his contributions were far greater. He was credited with helping stabilize the pitching staff when the Braves were without injured veteran Travis d’Arnaud and young William Contreras had slumped and been optioned to Triple A.
Vogt also helped keep things loose in the clubhouse with impersonations that had teammates buckled over in laughter.
When he was hired by the Guardians, less than two years after retiring as a player and without any managerial experience, Vogt heard from Snitker.
“He said, ‘Be yourself,’” Vogt said. “Said he couldn’t be more proud of me. Said, ‘I knew it would happen,’ he just wasn’t sure it would be this quick. But he did say, ‘Go out and be yourself. Don’t ever change who you are. And do it your way.’ So I really appreciated that advice from him.”
Snitker said he knew Vogt would be in charge of a team eventually.
“I looked at him as a manager-in-waiting when he was a player,” Snitker said. “So it didn’t surprise me … I think the world of him. He was a great teammate here when he was here and a big part of what we were doing.”
(Photo of Marcell Ozuna: Brett Davis / USA Today)
