Benches Clear When Braves' Ronald Acuna Jr Hit By First Pitch In The Game

The Miami Marlins found a way to stop Atlanta Braves rookie Ronald Acuna Jr. from hitting a home run off them. On the first pitch of the game, Marlin's starting pitcher, Jose Urena, hit Acuna. Which lead to both benches clearing onto the field.

After getting hit in the elbow by the pitch, Acuna went down to the ground and stayed there for a few minutes. The first guy out of the Braves dugout was manager Brian Snitker, and the players from both benches followed suit which led to some pushing and shoving on the field. Eventually, the umpires got everything calmed down, Acuna was able to make his way to first base and both Urena and Snitker were ejected.

Acuna has been on a major hot streak lately. Going into last nights game he had homered in five straight games with the last three coming against the Marlins. He was also the first player since the Orioles Brady Anderson to hit a lead-off home run in three straight games and his five-game streak tied the Atlanta Braves record held by Brian McCann (2006).

Obviously, Miami didn't like the trend and the Braves seem pretty sure that Urena threw at the rookie on purpose. ESPN quotes Snitker as saying after the game:

"I think it's pretty evident what I thought. That's a shame. The young man is just playing the game, doing what he loves to do. A damn shame... I'm not sure I've ever felt like that in a baseball game before. It's just my emotion. That kid didn't deserve that. There's just no reason for a young man to be hit like that when all he's doing is playing the game."

It turns out that the pitch that Urena threw was a 97.5mph fastball which, according to ESPN Stats & Information, was the fastest pitch the guy has ever thrown to start a game. And Acuna's teammate Freddie Freeman had this to say about it all, "Fastest pitch he's thrown all year and it was clearly intentional and it wasn't right. Hopefully some things are done about it." And he went on to say:

"I know that wasn't the Marlins. That was just Jose Urena. I don't understand it. Makes no sense. Just because a player is having fun playing the game, swinging the bat incredibly well obviously, that just makes no sense. That was incredibly classless on Jose Urena's part."

Urena, for his part, denies it was intentional and after the game claimed it was just a bad pitch: "I made the bad pitch. I missed my spot inside on the corner the way I wanted to start with him. I tried to get inside to move him."

Acuna took himself out of the game in the second inning, but thankfully, initial X-rays were negative. The results of further tests will be announced today.

And for those wondering what this all means for the streak (the record is eight straight games with a home run). Well, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, Acuna's streak is still intact because he was hit by a pitch in his only appearance at the plate in the last game (rule 9.23).