The Braves and Marlins wasted no time providing fireworks for their July 4 weekend series. It started with Pablo Lopez’s first pitch Friday at Truist Park.
Lopez hit outfielder Ronald Acuna, who was visibly aggravated. The Marlins hitting Acuna has been a recurring storyline since Jose Urena infamously hit Acuna in August 2018, causing the benches to clear and manager Brian Snitker to deliver an emotional defense of his player.
This time, Snitker was again livid, seen on TV yelling, “I’m tired of this (stuff).” The umpires ejected Lopez, leading to Marlins manager Don Mattingly going on his own impassioned rant on the field. He and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre were ejected. The game was delayed 12 minutes and 15 seconds while Snitker and Mattingly said their piece.
It was the sixth time the Marlins have plunked Acuna. It was the third time it happened on the first pitch of the game.
“I’m upset it’s the third time they hit him with the first pitch of the game,” manager Brian Snitker said. “I’ve watched it too much.”
After the game, Mattingly expressed frustration with Lopez’s ejection and how the Marlins are perceived.
“I’m really disappointed in the umpiring crew,” he said. “When it happened, if you watch close, Pablo turns his head and you could tell he didn’t mean to hit him. There’s no reason to hit Acuna for us. He’s a great player. We have tons of respect for the Braves and we’ve even talked about it openly that this is a club we have to prove we can play with. We feel like they were the class of the division. So there’s absolutely nothing going on this year with the Braves.
“When (umpire) Dan (Iassogna) tells me it’s because of history and it always happens and it’s always Acuna, that’s just not true. I’m pretty sure Brian Anderson has been hit six times since Acuna’s got hit. I think Miggy (Miguel Rojas) has been hit as many. Peter O’Brien’s got a broken rib from (Mike) Soroka, 100% on purpose. So ’18 is over. So for Dan to tell me this is history, there’s been history in the past for a guy who isn’t with us anymore (Urena). So to throw Pablo Lopez out of the game on the first pitch is, basically, Dan got bullied into it.”
Iassongna told a pool reporter: “There’s numerous things that go into it. Specifically, what type of pitch it is, where the pitch was, where it hit him. Those were our two main factors. You know it was a fastball. It was thrown directly at Acuna. And we felt it was intentional.”
He continued: “I think if you followed baseball at all, you understand that there’s history between this team and Acuna specifically, but there was no heads up in place, no formal heads up in place for us prior to this game. And understand this to one of the other things that we’re tasked to do is to keep control of the game. And we felt, and I felt, that by ejecting the pitcher rather than putting a warning out, that would absolutely stop any retaliation or continuing to really start a beanball war throughout the game. And so we made the decision to eject. I ejected him, and we did not have a beanball war. Tonight, we had one ejection. We had one hit batter and we had an injection.”
It was the first time a Marlins pitcher hit Acuna since the National League Division Series last October, when afterwards Acuna tweeted, “They hit me because they don’t get me out.” It was the first time Lopez had done so.
“I don’t know (if it was intentional), to be honest, just because of how many times it’s happened,” Acuna said via team interpreter Franco Garcia. “Whether it was or wasn’t, doesn’t matter to me. My only focus is that the team won.”
Acuna added he has no issue with Lopez: “Every time I see him in the walkways, we say hello and catch up, give each other a hug. We always exchange pleasantries and I think he’s a good guy.”
Acuna was hitting .330 with 20 homers, 12 doubles, one triple and 49 RBIs against the Marlins entering the night (51 games). Acuna, who’s been hit by eight pitches this season, scored on second baseman Ozzie Albies’ sacrifice fly. It was the only run of the Braves’ 1-0 victory.
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