MLB Needs To Fix Miami Marlins-Atlanta Braves Mess Right Now
One pitch was all it took to throw everything off balance this weekend between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves. MLB needs to act.
In the history of MLB, a Miami Marlins pitcher has intentionally hit Ronald Acuna Jr.
However, that is not remotely what happened this past Friday night. For proof, all one need to do is watch the game having ever watched a baseball game before.
That’s a prerequisite that seems like an MLB umpiring crew would be capable of satisfying. Hard to tell after this one though, when the decision was made to throw out Miami Marlins starting pitcher Pablo Lopez for hitting Acuna on the first pitch of the game.
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The first pitch. The first pitch of the first game of a pivotal series that will probably go a long way to determining whether Miami’s front office will throw in the towel on this 2021 season and start selling off parts for prospects. The reasons for plunking Acuna in that spot, at that time, were nonexistent.
Yet, according to Marlins manager Don Mattingly, Lopez was tossed in consideration of the history between the two clubs. The umpires told him as much. Which makes it easy to understand why Mattingly and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. were both tossed out of the game as well.
Tossed because of the history? Ludicrous.
For one, the pitcher who did the original plunking – Jose Urena – now plays for Detroit. He’s not even in the Marlins organization anymore. For another…Jose Urena isn’t even with the Marlins anymore. He plays for Detroit.
Incidentally, the Detroit Tigers were not present at Truist Park during this contest.
Furthermore, the bulk of this “history” happened in 2018. That’s three years ago. During his press conference, Mattingly expressed doubt that even half the current Marlins roster was still here from that season.
He was being kind. Only nine players to appear in 2021 as a Miami Marlin did so in 2018 as well: barely a third. And four of them are either injured or at AAA. Making it just five people in that dugout- six if you count Mattingly- who were there when Urena spent the summer throwing high and inside to Acuna.
Holding a three year old event against a team, when the perpetrator is no longer present, is grossly unfair to the Miami Marlins organization. An umpiring blunder that not only threw a wrench into Miami’s plans for a singular game, but promises to do so for…honestly, for the foreseeable future. How can any Marlins pitcher have any confidence throwing inside to Acuna in any Marlins-Braves game moving forward after all this?
It’s a completely untenable situation that MLB cannot allow to stand.
The league needs to act. Publicly rebuke the decisions of the umpiring crew. Have them come out and apologize. Sit Braves manager Brian Snitker down in a room and explain basic math to him. Something. Anything.
Concluding that Miami was acting intentionally might make perfect sense in a bar or the bleachers in Atlanta. But doing so in an official MLB capacity? Overthinking at best and completely ignorant at worst.
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Fix this mess, MLB. Before it gets any more out of hand.