Numbers confirm Marlins can’t stop hitting Ronald Acuña Jr.
By John Buhler
The Miami Marlins love hitting Ronald Acuña Jr. with baseballs like no other team.
When Ronald Acuña Jr. steps in the batter’s box vs. the Miami Marlins, they’re gonna hit him.
Fate would have it the Marlins would take on Acuña’s Atlanta Braves in a best-of-five NLDS down in Houston in the 2020 MLB postseason. The winner of this series gets to play either the Los Angeles Dodgers or the San Diego Padres in the 2020 NLCS. Tensions are high, but Acuña’s rate of getting beaned by Marlins pitchers is even higher. Just look at the data, it’s ridiculously absurd.
Acuña has been hit once every 41.2 plate appearances vs. the Marlins and once every 80 PA against everyone else. https://t.co/rx8XbPN3PD
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) October 6, 2020
When you get hit twice as often than against everybody else, something is Fishy.
No, we don’t need a refresher of Acuña’s robust history with the Marlins. All we need to do is look at what happened in Game 1 of the 2020 NLDS between the Marlins and the Braves. Acuña took Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara the opposite way on a leadoff moonshot. In his next at-bat, he got drilled in the butt with a 97 MPH fastball from Alcantara. Both benches were warned after it.
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This upset Braves skipper Brian Snitker tremendously, as his team got a warning for nothing. Atlanta couldn’t afford to hit a Marlins batter without being ejected. Though Chris Martin did clunk a Miami hitter in the innings to follow, he was allowed to stay in the game because it was on an off-speed pitch that got away from him. Unintentional beanings aren’t what we’re talking about.
Acuña’s history with the Marlins only gets more compelling with every game he faces them.