Ronald Acuña Jr., the Braves’ edition of Bryce Harper, is the latest Philly villain. Which is great
Move over Mike Piazza and Chipper Jones, and maybe Scott Rolen and J.D. Drew, too. The Braves' best player has affably embraced the role of Bad Guy, which had been vacant for so long.
He homered, he flapped, he Euro’ed, he curtain called. It was quite the weekend for Ronald Acuña Jr., the Braves’ right fielder and newest Philly villain.
Acuña is a five-time All-Star, the 2023 National League MVP, and, in many respects, Atlanta’s version of Phillies superstar Bryce Harper, from his sense of style to his sense of swagger. That was amplified during the four-game series against the Braves that began Friday, with supremacy in the NL East at stake.
When he took the field Friday, Acuña was disliked, perhaps because of his general excellence while playing for a rival team, perhaps more so specifically stemming from a leisurely home-run trot in Philadelphia in 2021.
» READ MORE: Murphy: In the wake of Ronald Acuña’s blast, Phillies rookie Alex McFarlane remains the bullpen’s best hope
By the time he departed Philadelphia on Monday he had two homers, two wins, and a target on his back. He was hitting .308 with 20 homers and 64 RBIs in 97 career games vs. the Phillies, among his best numbers against any opponent. Further, he gloated in his success and mocked Phillies fans.
It. Was. Awesome.
Can’t wait for more.
Marcus Hayes alerts
The Phillies visit the Braves this weekend but they don’t host Atlanta again until next season unless the teams meet in the playoffs. We pray for that sort of theater. It has always been worth the price of admission.
Not since Phillies killers Mike Piazza and Chipper Jones have Phillies fans had such a legitimate object for their derision, and neither of them had the gall to taunt the most passionate fan base in sports.
For years, the Phillies lacked a great player from another team they could legitimately loathe. Acuña is now that guy.
Fresh meat
Acuña left town with seven hits, among them two doubles and, most significant, two homers.
After the first homer, a 450-foot bomb off Zack Wheeler in the third inning Saturday, Acuña took his time getting around the bases. He’d cut the lead to 3-1, but he acted like he’d flipped the lead. He beat his chest at first base, flapped his arms at second base, Euro-stepped at third base, then sauntered home. That’s his home-run trot routine this season, but that didn’t make it any less deplorable. It took 29.51 seconds. Wheeler glared at him.
The second homer, a three-run blast off reliever Alex McFarlane on Sunday, was crushing. It tied the game, 4-4, in the eighth inning. Fully aware of the uproar his trot caused Saturday, Acuña poured it on Sunday. He stared into the Phillies’ dugout before beginning the journey. This time, he took 32.36 seconds to round the bases, his slowest of 16 trips this season and the third-slowest of his career 202 trips.
Then, incredibly, Acuña popped out of the Braves’ dugout and gave the Phillies fan a mock curtain call.
Fabulous.
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper would have been proud.
The Braves later won, 5-4.
Acuña loved it all.
“I love the fans from Philly because they boo me,” Acuña told reporters Sunday.
Acuña also had three hits in Friday’s win.
The two Braves wins assured that the Phillies, who trailed them by four games entering the series, could not make up ground in the NL East. Monday, his one-out walk in the ninth inning put the tying run on first base in a 1-0 game. Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo stranded him, to the delight of the 41,820 at Citizens Bank Park. Tragedy averted.
Luzardo logged the first complete game of his career, a shutout no less, but he did so with disaster just 270 feet from home plate.
The fans were delighted by the feat two outs later … but just imagine their angst if Acuña started another comeback and the Phillies had blown a second straight win.
» READ MORE: A Kyle Schwarber homer is all Jesús Luzardo needs to beat Braves with his first career shutout
Brush-back?
Acuña’s trot Sunday led to questions before Monday’s game regarding how to approach the outfielder, whose hot bat had become a real threat again, and whose cocky attitude had rankled traditionalists.
“What are you going to do? Are we going to knock him down three times and that’s going to make him uncomfortable?” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said before the game. “That’s just not part of the game now.”
Saturday night, Mattingly, who is 65, acknowledged that baseball had long since legislated intentionally hitting batters who showboated.
“Today’s game, you see it all the time,” Mattingly said. “It’s more commonplace. Let the kids play, right? We started that.”
That doesn’t mean everyone likes it … especially star pitchers.
“Our guy just rounds the bases that hits 50 here,” said Wheeler.
That might be true of the guy in question, Kyle Schwarber. He homered Saturday, and brushed off questions about Acuña’s home-run trot. He homered again Monday, but pointedly declined to become part of the Acuña narrative. He followed his shot in the eighth with a brisk scoot around the bags, and afterward scoffed at the notion that his home-run trots were now being scrutinized.
It most definitely is not true of the more significant guy, Bryce Harper.
Philly’s own
Harper made an art of the home run celebration since he entered pro ball as a teenager; he got into trot-trouble in the minors.
And nobody milks the moment like the guy they call “The Showman.”
After Harper made a baserunning error in Game 2 of the 2023 NL Division Series, Braves second baseman Orlando Arcia mocked him. So, when Harper hit two homers in Game 3, Harper stared down Arcia each time. Later that fall, in Game 5 of the NL Championship Series in Arizona, after he homered, Harper stared down Michael Phelps, who lives in the area and had thrown out the first pitch. Phelps is a 23-time Olympic gold medalist as a swimmer — and Harper’s buddy.
» READ MORE: Phillies building up Tanner Banks to multi-inning role as he nears return from injured list
In March, Harper took 35.63 seconds to round the bases after his 432-foot home run for Team USA against Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. It took him 5 seconds to even leave the batter’s box. He literally threw his bat 30 feet back toward the Team USA dugout. At third base, he paused to salute. As Harper approached home plate, he screamed into the camera and patted the American flag on his left sleeve. It wasn’t even a big-league game and it wasn’t a game-winner. It just tied the game, 2-2, and Harper and the Americans eventually lost.
If Harper is the Prince of Petty, he doesn’t own the most obnoxious trot in Phillies history, but he was there for it. In 2019, after the Mets hit J.T. Realmuto in what appeared to be a retaliation plunking, Rhys Hoskins took 34.22 seconds to circumnavigate the diamond, at that point the longest trot since trots began to be measured, and it was utterly provocative. It was the ninth inning, and it made the score 6-0. Harper had a front-row seat for that one, because it was Harper that Hoskins drove in.
How about the moment that turbocharged the recent Phillies playoff runs?
That was Hoskins’ third-inning, three-run, bat-slam dinger in Game 3 of the 2022 NLDS against … you guessed it — the Braves. Acuña watched that one from right field at the Bank.
So, yeah, the Phillies and their fans live in glass houses when it comes to criticizing somebody else’s home-run behavior.
And then …
If the Phillies sought revenge, Acuña barely gave them the chance to knock him down Monday. He occupied the designated hitter spot (perhaps protected from Phillies fans in right field), batted first in the order, and swung at the first pitch in his first two at-bats.
Not much drama. Not much satisfaction. Satisfaction arrived in the sixth.
Luzardo struck out Acuña on three pitches, and it was the moment the fans had been waiting for. After he flailed at a sweeper and jogged back to the dugout, fans erupted in cheers and mocked his failure by flapping their arms.
Flapping their arms?
Yes.
Philly fans lost their minds Friday when Acuña flapped his arms as he rounded second base, assuming he was mocking their assumed Eagle fandom. Not so.
Most Braves players make that motion when they homer, just as most Phillies raise the index and pinky finger of their right hand as they round second during a home-run trot. Acuña also typically pantomimes a Euro-step basketball move near third base, and he did this, too — though in Philly this weekend, he performed the Euro less at Russell Westbrook speed than at Luka Dončić speed.
Other ‘bad guys’
As for other historical villains in Phillies history, this sort of animosity is different from the hometown hatred directed at Scott Rolen, who declined a big contract extension and forced a trade to St. Louis, or Dick Allen, whose situation was complicated by racial tensions and his contrarian nature. J.D. Drew also is unique in that it was the Phillies’ hubris and obstinacy that cast him as spoiled and petulant in the late 1990s, when, in fact, he simply was greedy and anti-establishment.
Piazza, meanwhile, was a homegrown talent who represented the Dodgers’ and Mets’ superiority during a fallow Phillies era. His 44 home runs and 130 RBIs against the Phillies are the most he accrued against any team.
Similarly, Jones was the face of the best NL franchise for 20 years. He hit 49 homers against both the Phillies and the Mets, and his 1.036 OPS and .331 batting average are his best against any team that was in the NL his entire career (the Brewers switched in 1998).
For two decades, Jones was assaulted by chants of, “Laaaaaaa-ry,” his given name. For years, Piazza got straight-up boos. From now on, so will Acuña.
Sweet.
With the minor league season winding down, Phillies farm director Luke Murton returns to Phillies Extra to discuss the state of the system and upcoming changes to his role. He also offers an encouraging update on injured top prospect Aidan Miller. Watch here.
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