Ronald Acuña Jr. faced the Marlins again, and things got tense fast. There’s history here. Last year, Miami hit Acuña after he went deep on them. Later in that game, they hit him again. So when he stepped to the plate this time, eyes were on him. He got hit by a pitch in the first inning and wasn’t happy about it. The cameras caught him saying, “That’s three times,” clearly frustrated. His manager, Brian Snitker, backed him this time, even though he had benched Acuña in a past game for not hustling.
The umpires issued warnings to both teams right after the hit-by-pitch, and that set off Snitker. He argued that it wasn’t fair to warn the Braves when their guy was the one getting plunked. He felt the warning forced his pitchers to hold back the rest of the game, especially with fastballs inside, which could affect their entire strategy. Snitker stormed out, made his case, and got tossed when he wouldn’t let it go. But the message was clear: this time, he had Acuña’s back.