The Atlanta Braves won 101 games this season and earned a fifth straight NL East title, but their World Series defense ended this weekend shy of a trip to the NLCS. And really, a lot went wrong for the Braves in their NLDS series with the Phillies. It wasn’t one play … or player.
Yet, judging from Braves radio analyst Joe Simpson’s call in Game 4, you would have guessed that Ronald Acuña Jr. was responsible for the postseason letdown.
While Acuña was one of the few reliable hitters in the series for Atlanta, the Braves star was caught ball watching on J.T. Realmuto’s inside-the-park home run in Game 4. At the point the ball evaded Michael Harris II and ricocheted off the wall, Acuña had yet to move. At best, Acuña would have been able to hold Realmuto to a triple if he was actively backing up the play. It was a mistake, sure. But you almost never hear a team radio broadcast go in on a star player like Simpson did on Saturday.
Take a listen (Note: the bottom video):
J.T. Realmuto's inside-the-park homer as heard on Braves radio… dude was sick of Acuña lmaoooooo pic.twitter.com/2Z9Xzhx48a
— Nick Piccone (@_piccone) October 15, 2022
There’s no denying that Acuña could have done better there. But the Braves have also told Acuña — who is coming off a torn ACL — to take it easy running this season. It’s why we hadn’t seen him run out ground balls this season — it was an instruction from the Braves. So it’s a bit unfair to expect max effort on a fly ball to left-center field while simultaneously telling him to take it easy on the knee.
The play didn’t ultimately make much of a difference as the Braves lost, 8-3. But it was certainly a talking point heading into what will be a long offseason for the Braves.
This was how Twitter reacted
People will continue to blame Acuña when Austin Riley has hit .067 in the series
— World Series Champion Cold Takes (@BravesColdTakes) October 15, 2022
Braves radio reacting to Ronald Acuña Jr. not reacting on J.T. Realmuto’s inside-the-park homer. Words were not minced. https://t.co/j7iA2gsxW1
— Corey Seidman (@CSeidmanNBCS) October 16, 2022
Was it a bad play…yeah it was not good, but Joe always had this thing with Acuña, because he doesn’t play baseball like the guys did in 1807. Joe needs to get off his horse. https://t.co/wBgDR0z5QR
— Adrian Jones (@adrianjones_10) October 16, 2022
Wow, Joe Simpson just eviscerating Acuna on that inside the park home run for just “being a spectator.” And just keeps ripping him through two batters.
— Kyle Snipes (@KyleSnipes) October 15, 2022
Be mad all you want but it’s hard to criticize Acuña when every time he’s played a playoff series the other eight guys forget what a baseball is
— Garrett Spain (@BravesMILB) October 15, 2022
I lived the, "Acuña was one of the only Braves to actually show up for the division series, but he screwed up one play so it's his fault!" discourse once and have no desire to engage on that again.
— Dayton from Nebraska (@BravesAmerica) October 15, 2022
At the time the ball was hitting the wall on J.T. Realmuto's HR Ronald Acuna had not yet moved. pic.twitter.com/txC6A2jzg2
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) October 15, 2022
The Braves issues so far aren’t Riley & Swanson not hitting, the starters not throwing more than 2 productive innings, and the bottom half of the order making pitchers look like Randy Johnson, it’s 100% because Acuña didn’t back up a ball hit between LF & CF.
— Cody (@CodyRogers10) October 15, 2022
Joe Simpson cooking Ronald Acuña Jr. for that effort on the Braves radio network
— Wes Blankenship (@Wes_nship) October 15, 2022
It was a bad play, but no team is going to win a playoff series when the starting pitchers post a 7.90 ERA. Simpson should save some of his energy for that.
