{"id":84549,"date":"2025-08-28T08:33:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=84549"},"modified":"2025-08-28T08:33:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:33:48","slug":"ronald-acuna-jr-is-always-inches-away-from-starting-a-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=84549","title":{"rendered":"Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. is always inches away from starting a fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\">The Atlanta Braves have had a tough year. They were expected to be a clear contender in the National League and at the very least challenge the Philadelphia Phillies for the top spot in the NL East after they won 89 games in 2024. But things haven&#8217;t turned out in their favor this year.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\">Entering Wednesday&#8217;s game against the Miami Marlins, the Braves were 60-72 and 16 games back of first place in the NL East. They were also 11 games back in the Wild Card race.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\">With the Braves leading 3-0 in the top of the third inning, Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. was hit by a pitch from Marlins pitcher Ryan Gusto. He tried to walk towards the mound and shouted at Gusto, but was held back by the home plate umpire. The benches and bullpens briefly emptied. But at a moment&#8217;s notice, Acu\u00f1a was ratcheted up and ready to start a fight.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\"><em><strong>For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray\u2019s work on\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>The Baseball Insiders podcast<em><strong>, subscribe to\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>The Moonshot,<em><strong> our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"inline-text-4\">Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. sparks controversy after HBP<\/h2>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\">To be fair, Acu\u00f1a has been hit by a lot of pitches in recent years, and many of them have come against the Marlins, so it&#8217;s understandable as to why he is frustrated. The inside pitches keep coming, and Acu\u00f1a is not happy about it. Acu\u00f1a has been hit by nine Marlins pitches in his career, even leading to on-field conflict. At this point, it should come as no surprise that Acu\u00f1a enters each game against Miami on high alert. Yet, as MLB.com&#8217;s Mark Bowman reported, this was just the third time they plunked him since the start of 2022.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\">Sometimes, Acu\u00f1a&#8217;s muscle memory takes over.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\">But there likely was no intent from Gusto on the pitch, so Acu\u00f1a is essentially creating a problem where there didn&#8217;t need to be one. Now, there is tension between the Braves and Marlins following the hit-by-pitch.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"inline-text-8\">Ronald Acu\u00f1a can&#8217;t help but cause unnecessary drama against Miami<\/h2>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\">No other team has hit Acu\u00f1a Jr. more than five nines. The Marlins have hit him nine times. For context, it is clear as day that Acu\u00f1a holds a grudge against the Braves division rival, which is why Marlins pitchers are always one mishap away from some unnecessary drama.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\">There was no need for the benches to clear, and Acu\u00f1a certainly stoked the fire in Wednesday&#8217;s series finale. Players have to expect to be pitched inside from time to time. It certainly can be frustrating to get hit by pitches frequently, but at the end of the day, it is simply part of the game.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\">Acu\u00f1a doesn&#8217;t have to like being hit by a pitch. No player does. But he seemed to want to start a fight at a moment&#8217;s notice, and he almost did after being plunked. Fortunately, he was hit on the elbow guard, so there was no injury.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\">Acu\u00f1a is slashing .303\/.420\/.542 with 15 home runs, a 2.1 WAR, 31 RBI and a .962 OPS this season. He is a former MVP, Rookie of the Year, five-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger. He also has made very clear that he doesn&#8217;t like to get hit by pitches.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\">But why he felt the need to confront Gusto is unclear.<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlanta Braves have had a very disappointing season. They were expected to be a clear contender in the National League and at the very least challenge the P<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":84554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. is always inches away from starting a fight - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=84549\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. is always inches away from starting a fight - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Atlanta Braves have had a very disappointing season. 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