ATLANTA -- Braves phenom Ronald Acuna Jr. is so good in the present and has such potential for the future that you can forgive him if he's a little light when it comes to knowledge about baseball's past.
It was a frozen moment for which Braves fans had been waiting for five years, since the last time Atlanta made the postseason. That was a different time, in a different stadium, and save for one key exception, it was a different team.
The Braves had just plated their first run of the National League Division Series, and frankly, it could not have been more of a gift. Nick Markakis worked a leadoff walk against vicious (in a pitching context) Dodgers rookie Walker Buehler, who sailed through the first inning on just five pitches. That extended Atlanta's scoreless string to begin the series to 19 innings. There was a long way to go in the game, but Atlanta had moved one inning closer to becoming the first team to go scoreless in an entire playoff series.
After two strikeouts, Ozzie Albies stroked a single up the middle. Center fielder Cody Bellinger charged in to field the hit but booted it, allowing Markakis to reach third, with Albies ending up on second. It marked just the third time in the series that the Braves had advanced a runner to third base.
The Bellinger error was key because with first base open, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called for one of those pitchless intentional walks to load the bases. Even that detail matters because even though it's no longer a thing that a pitcher will lose his release point while issuing an intentional walk, Buehler suddenly started pitching as if he had.
"Very uncharacteristic that second inning," Roberts said. "Tonight the stuff was really good, and I thought he had complete control. But after that error in center field, I think that he lost his focus a little bit."
Up to the plate stepped Sean Newcomb, the Braves' starting pitcher, who entered the game with a career batting average of .042 (3-for-72). The instructions for Newcomb: Do not, under any circumstances, swing the bat.
Now, you can make a very convincing case that Braves manager Brian Snitker should have hit for Newcomb right then. Scoring opportunities for Atlanta had been virtually nonexistent in the series to that point. Newcomb is a hopeless hitter. The Braves' bullpen was rested and fully stocked with not only relievers but also four other members of the regular-season starting rotation. Everyone was available.
Nonetheless, four pitches later, Newcomb was standing on first base with his second career RBI, and that's how the Braves finally scored their first run of the series. You can't make this stuff up.
"I don't think we wanted him to swing in that situation -- at all," Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said. "I was actually screaming turn him loose on 3-0. They didn't listen to me."
The RBI walk brought Acuna to the plate. At first, it didn't look like he was going to get a chance to swing the bat either. Buehler's control had vanished into the Georgia night. Three balls ensued, so Snitker threw up the take sign, wanting to force Buehler to throw a strike.
"[Buehler] had thrown so many balls," the Braves manager said. "Because [Acuna] is an aggressive kid, we hung a take. I didn't want him trying to do too much on that pitch."
Before the 3-0 pitch even reached home plate, Acuna lowered his bat in a fashion that was almost defiant. The pitch looked high, but home plate umpire Gary Cederstrom gave the Dodgers a gift that they surely wish he hadn't given them. He called a strike.
"I didn't think it was a strike," Acuna said via his interpreter. "I was just focused on the pitch. And the next pitch, and I was luckily able to connect."
Connect he did, making history in the process. Buehler's next offering was a 98 mph heater up in the zone. When Acuna's bat flashed at it and connected right on the barrel, Buehler lowered his head, not bothering to watch the ball soar into the left-field seats for a grand slam.
With the blast, Acuna became the youngest player to hit a grand slam in a postseason game, at 20 years, 293 days old. You might have heard of the player he surpassed: Mickey Mantle, who set the record with a home run in the 1953 World Series.
We say "might have heard of" because you can't take these things for granted. During his postgame news conference, seated on the podium with teammate Freeman and Braves interpreter Franco Garcia, Acuna was asked by a baseball-history-obsessed ESPN writer if he had ever heard the name Mickey Mantle.
"No, I don't recognize him," Acuna said. "I wasn't even born then."
Acuna laughed, and everybody else did too. This is a common thing among young ballplayers. They are too busy playing the game to read about the heroes of decades gone by. That leaves it up to us to make the connection between the preternaturally talented Acuna and the great Mantle, one of baseball's best ever, who, like the Braves rookie, could do it all.
Acuna's emergence can't really be termed a great surprise, though the rapidity with which he has blossomed is pretty amazing. He was baseball's consensus top prospect entering the season and became one of the Braves' top producers as soon as he was promoted to the big leagues in late April. He hit .293/.366/.552, with 26 homers and 16 stolen bases, all while flashing Gold Glove potential in the outfield.
So you have that, the potential. You have the great regular-season numbers, which will likely land Acuna the NL's Rookie of the Year Award. But what you don't know entering the playoffs is how a player so young, who has moved up so quickly, will react to the brightest of baseball's lights.
After Sunday night, we know, and the proof could not have come at a better time for Atlanta.
"Ronald not missing the next pitch, that was huge for our team to kind of get that elephant off our back," Snitker said.
It might have also been the last take sign that Acuna ever sees.
"I guess I have to rank it first of all the moments just because it happened in the playoffs," Acuna said. "To be honest, that's what we've been working for this entire time since spring training."
Acuna's slam gave the Braves a commanding 5-0 lead, but after SunTrust Park stopped shaking, you still didn't have the feeling that it was over. Not with the veteran Dodgers on the other side. Sure enough, L.A. did its thing, collecting walks and hitting homers, and soon the game was tied at 5. The energy in the park had shifted from ebullience to anxiousness.
That left it to Freeman to have the postseason moment that he earned by sticking out the five years of Atlanta's trip down to the bottom of the standings, gradual rebuild and sudden reemergence as a contending club. On the first pitch L.A. reliever Alex Wood threw, Freeman blasted a shot far into the right-field seats, giving Atlanta the lead. The typically controlled Freeman let loose.
Just as it was for Acuna, the blast was Freeman's first career postseason homer. He waited a lot longer than Acuna did for his.
"He continues to amaze," Freeman said. "I don't think we needed or wanted anybody else in that situation. It's kind of fitting that our starting pitcher was the first one to get an RBI in the series. But in that situation, Ronald was able to work the count and get into his hitter's count, and I think everyone had all the confidence in the world.
"He's been doing it all year, and he continued it in the playoffs. He's pretty incredible, and everybody is starting to get to see it."
When the Braves designated Freeman as their guy, selling him on the rebuilding plan and convincing him to sign on for the long term, Acuna was just a teenager, off somewhere learning the game. He hadn't heard of Mickey Mantle, and for that matter, he probably hadn't heard of Freddie Freeman.
This is how rebuilds are supposed to work. You build up the pipeline and hope to create organizational depth, but you also hope that a few of those carefully scouted and developed prospects turn into something special, the kind of players who can provide the foundation for a championship club.
In Freeman, the Braves knew they had their cornerstone. He has been there all along, Now, though, he isn't alone. And if Acuna needs a little help with his baseball history, Freeman will be there for that too. As the trio on the podium exited, with Freeman trailing behind Acuna, Freeman turned back to the reporters who were scattering to work on their postgame stories.
"I'll work with him on Mickey Mantle," he joked.
Thanks, Freddie. When it comes to those past greats who are no longer with us, it would be only fitting for the greats of the future to know who they are.