So while the city of Atlanta is enjoying the Hawks’ incredible NBA playoff run, the Braves are quickly looking like one of the MLB season’s biggest disappointments.
After falling just a game short of the NL pennant last year, the Braves are five games below .500 through 65 games and trailing the Mets by 7.5 games in the NL East standings. Cold starts from reliable hitters, injuries, a suddenly abysmal bullpen and Marcell Ozuna’s domestic violence arrest have all torpedoed this season.
And now, manager Brian Snitker may have disgruntled his biggest star.
During Atlanta’s 10-8 loss to the Red Sox on Wednesday, Ronald Acuña Jr. was thrown out at third as he tried to stretch his ninth-inning, RBI double into a triple.
I love me some Ronald Acuna but this absolutely CAN NOT happen. Still 2 with 1 out in the 9th and you get thrown out easily trying for 3rd base when you gain nothing by getting to 3rd instead of just stopping at 2nd and bringing the tying run to the plate. pic.twitter.com/DwlBAxioop
— Ben Verlander (@Verly32) June 17, 2021
It was a needlessly aggressive mistake by Acuña, but the loss was far from the Braves phenom’s fault. The Braves bullpen allowed six runs in the game, including a go-ahead grand slam in the seventh. But Snitker’s postgame remarks chose to focus on Acuña’s mistake, saying that the Braves star couldn’t do “stupid things” like that and expect to win.
Brian Snitker on Acuña getting thrown out at 3rd:
"You can't do stupid things like that and expect to win games. We have the tying run at the plate & the MVP and you get thrown out by 10 feet. You can't do that and expect to win."
(via @BravesOnBally)pic.twitter.com/Xu5UvzAIJc
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) June 17, 2021
Those comments appeared to catch the attention of both Acuña Jr. and his father because curious posts briefly appeared on their Instagram pages. First, Acuña Jr. posted this photo from Kong: Skull Island before deleting it.
Uhhhhhhhh pic.twitter.com/QfrN8Kgde3
— Barving Badly Szn (@TheScudStud) June 17, 2021
Honestly, it doesn’t get much more cryptic than that. Like, what does that even mean? But the fact that Acuña Jr. deleted the post obviously had fans connecting it to Snitker’s remarks.
It got worse, though. Acuña’s father blasted Snitker on Instagram in now-deleted comments. There was nothing cryptic about this: (NSFW language)
The rough translation to English:
The same (expletive) as Tony La Russa. Old dumb(expletive). Both of them.
He also appeared to take issue with Snitker defending Dansby Swanson, who is white, for a similar mistake last month:
Who’s more stupid than you that every time they get to the 7th inning and three lefties come up to bat, you bring in a right hander? God dammit always defending the white players. You’ve made a thousand stupidities, and that’s why they’re in first place.
Clearly some heavy sarcasm in that last sentence, but man, that’s not great at all for Snitker.
His team is coming off a rough stretch, and now he has his best player (and his dad) publicly upset with him.
It’s still early enough where the Braves could turn things around, but if they don’t, it’ll be tough to overlook this ordeal when the Braves evaluate Snitker’s future in Atlanta.
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