Ump Show: Hunter Wendelstedt helped Ronald Acuña Jr. do the impossible

Vibes are not great for the Atlanta Braves right now. The reigning NL East champions are just 3-7 in their last 10 games after a second straight loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday, injuries have started to pile up, particularly to stars like Spencer Strider and Austin Riley, and perhaps the most worrisome part has been the early-season struggles of Ronald Acuña Jr., last season's NL MVP as he submitted the first-ever 40-homer, 70-stolen base season.

Through 48 games this season, Acuña is slashing only .246/.348/.356 with only four home runs and 12 total extra-base hits to his credit. He's looked like a shell of the player we saw a year ago for the Braves.

And it doesn't help that umpire Hunter Wendelstedt made Acuña's life impossibly difficult at the plate on Saturday.

In the top of the seventh with Atlanta trailing 3-1 on Saturday, the Braves had one on with two outs when Acuña came to the dish. He didn't see a single pitch in the strike zone. He also didn't take the bat off of his shoulder. So it should've been runners on first and second with the go-ahead run, Ozzie Albies, coming to the plate, right?

Wrong. Acuña was wrung up by Wendelstedt for a backwards K to end that half of the inning despite not seeing a single strike or swinging.

Ronald Acuña Jr. strikes out with no thrown strikes and no swings

Look, it's not an umpire's job to help out a slumping player or to know what every batter is currently working through. I get that, so does everyone else. But their job is most definitely to get balls and strikes called correctly. Wendelstedt quite literally did that job at a 50% clip during this at-bat and sat Acuña down despite the Atlanta star making all the right decisions at the plate.

If there's any silver lining, this was the only time in the game that Acuña struck out. However, that's about where the good things end. The Braves eventually lost 4-1, the outfielder finished the game just 1-for-5 with a single, and a potential rally was killed despite the right discipline and discernment being used.

No one is paying to see the Ump Show. Yet, at roughly a dozen ballparks throughout the country every night in the major leagues, that's exactly what fans are forced to watch time and again.

When are those robo umps coming again?