ATLANTA — It came down to the final inning of the 162-game schedule, and when the Braves finally got the 307th home run to put an exclamation point on their resounding, record-breaking season, it came from perhaps the last guy anyone would’ve expected five months ago would be around to hit it: Marcell Ozuna.
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Many Braves followers and some media members were ready to run Ozuna out of town when he followed up his disappointing 2022 season by hitting a puny .085 with two RBIs and a .397 OPS in 18 games through the end of April. A weak-armed outfielder and designated hitter who could no longer hit, many said. DFA him, they said.
Now look at him.
“The Big Bear” capped his five-month resurgence with two homers and four RBIs in Sunday’s 10-9 loss to the Nationals. The performance included a ninth-inning solo homer that gave Ozuna 100 RBIs and a career-high 40 home runs, and gave the Braves a tie with the 2019 Twins for the single-season homer record with 307.
“It feels amazing,” said Ozuna, who hit a three-run homer in the third inning, figured he was done for the day after drawing a seventh-inning walk, but got another chance to hit after Braves reliever Michael Tonkin gave up three runs in the top of the ninth to blow a lead. “People didn’t believe in me like the way that I believe in myself, and God gave me the opportunity to be in this spot where I am right now. So, I say thanks to everyone who believes, and everyone who doesn’t believe — I’m here for everything.”
Braves manager Brian Snitker said of Ozuna’s turnaround and performance in the season finale: “Awesome. I’m just so happy for him. It’s like I told him, when you believe in yourself, people are going to believe in you. And it’s just amazing what that guy came through, and what he fought through, what he did, how he turned his season around. I’ve got so much respect for that guy. It’s phenomenal what he did.”
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There was much speculation in late April that the Braves would cut ties with Ozuna, though he still was owed nearly $35 million on a backloaded four-year, $65 million contract that runs through 2024 and includes a $16 million option for 2025 with a $1 million buyout.
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But Braves officials say they never had discussions about releasing Ozuna. They cited his hard-hit rates late in the 2022 season and an outstanding 2023 spring training when he was sent on more road trips than any other veteran without complaint.
Snitker and team officials believed Ozuna could turn things around after his career-worst stretch to start the season. But even the most optimistic of them couldn’t have imagined the extent to which he did. Ozuna, 32, totaled 38 home runs and 98 RBIs in 126 games since May 1, hitting .298 in that stretch while raising his season OPS to .904, ninth-best among major league qualifiers, just ahead of the Phillies’ Bryce Harper (.900).
“(Ozuna) wasn’t swinging like he would like earlier on in the year, but he always stays confident,” said teammate Matt Olson, who led the majors in home runs (54) and RBIs (139), the first Brave to lead in both categories since the legendary Hank Aaron in 1957. “He’s a guy that’s been around and played for a while, and he knows what kind of player he is. He knew that he was going to come out of it at some point.
“I’m sure there were a lot of bad things being said about him earlier in the season, and hopefully the people who were saying those things admit they were in the wrong and eat their words a little bit. Because it’s a long season, we play 162 for a reason. It’s not always going to be perfect, but you’ve got to have the confidence to go out and play every day and see where you’re at then.”
The final score Sunday meant little to a Braves team that had already clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs by virtue of its MLB-best 104 wins. But the details of the game meant plenty to a team and some players so close to setting records or reaching personal goals or statistical standards.
Numbers such as 40 and 100 for Ozuna, which made it four Braves with 100 or more RBIs for only the second time since RBIs became an official stat in 1920. Joining Olson and Ozuna were Ozzie Albies (109) and Ronald Acuña Jr. (106) The only other Braves foursome to accomplish the feat was in 2003, when Gary Sheffield (132), Andruw Jones (116), Javy López (109) and Chipper Jones (106) did it.
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Ozuna’s big day also made the Braves just the third team to have three players with at least 40 homers and 100 RBIs, with him joining Olson and MVP favorite Acuña, who had 41 homers and 106 RBIs in addition to leading the majors in runs (149), hits (217) and stolen bases (73) and becoming the first player in history with at least 40 homers and 50 steals in a season, not to mention 40-60 and 40-70.
The only other team to do it was Colorado, which had three players with 40 homers and 100 RBIs in 1996 and 1997.
Also, Ozuna’s two homers Sunday helped ensure the Braves became the first team in history to slug .500 or better for a full season. They finished at .501, while the next-best in the majors this season was the Dodgers’ .455.
The Braves’ homer lead was even wider, a stunning 23 percent more than the next-highest total, the Dodgers’ 249. The Braves’ .845 OPS was 50 points ahead of the second-ranked Dodgers’ .795. The Braves scored 41 runs more than any other team. They hit for an average of 13 points higher than anyone else. And on and on it went.
“It was a good, total season, had some personal achievements on the way,” Olson said, “but we’re all back to zero now. And that’s the fun part. We’ve got to come into the playoffs and play the same caliber baseball, and hopefully continue to move on. We want to be holding the trophy at the end.”
The Braves have a first-round postseason bye and have five days to wait until they play a National League Division Series against the winner of a wild-card series between two of their NL East rivals, the Phillies and Marlins.
Ozuna erased a three-run deficit with his three-run homer to center field in the third inning Sunday, after hitting a mammoth three-run homer to straightaway center Saturday that erased a two-run deficit in the fifth inning and gave the Braves the lead they wouldn’t relinquish in a 5-3 win. But the pièce de résistance came in the ninth inning, when he homered off Kyle Finnegan and thrilled the 54th sellout crowd of the season at Truist Park.
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Ozuna had walked with two on in the seventh and assumed that would be his final time up in the regular season, with the Braves leading 7-5 after seven innings and 8-7 after eight. But after the Nationals scored three runs in the ninth, the Braves got one more at-bat, and Ozuna delivered what so many fans hoped to see: Home run number 307.
THE BOMBA SQUAD HAS COMPANY.
The @Braves tie the MLB team record with 𝟑𝟎𝟕 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐬 in a single season. pic.twitter.com/d2I28KI80g
— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) October 1, 2023
“I’m really appreciative of Snit and them, and the front office, the ones who trusted me,” said Ozuna, who was in the lineup at DH in all but four games since June 14 despite his slow start. “Snit always trusted me since I was with another team and he always saw my game. He saw my personality, and then he always trusted. Thank God and Snit for making me be comfortable and do the job that I did.”
Despite the bad start and criticism, Ozuna said, “I was never sad. I’d never been in that spot, so I just came in every day to work as hard as I can. Sometimes you just try so hard and the results don’t come at the right time. But at the end, you’re going to see the results, and that’s what everybody’s seeing right now.”
The Braves had four of the top seven National League home-run leaders this season with Olson, Acuña, Ozuna and Riley, and were the first team in history to have four hitters with at least 35 home runs in the same season. Ozzie Albies wasn’t far behind with 33 home runs. Albies also had 109 RBIs to finish third in the NL behind Olson and the Mets’ Pete Alonso (118). The Braves tied an MLB record with five hitters with at least 95 RBIs.
Acuña was replaced at the beginning of the third inning Sunday, with Snitker having him go to his position first before sending in a replacement so Acuña could get a standing ovation from the sellout crowd as he left the game. He finished with an NL-leading 1.012 OPS and was second in the majors with a .337 average behind the Marlins’ Luis Arraez (.354).
Similarly, Snitker replaced Olson before the third inning after he got two more RBIs with a first-inning single. Olson got a big ovation as he left the field.
“Snit gave us a little chance to do that, which I thought was nice,” said Olson, who finished with a .283 average and .993 OPS that ranked second in the NL, behind Acuña and ahead of the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts (.987) and Freddie Freeman (.977). “It’s been a good year for a lot of us, won a lot of games. But it doesn’t mean anything now. This is where the fun starts.”
(Top photo of Marcell Ozuna reacting to his ninth-inning homer on Sunday: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)