ATLANTA (AP) — Ronald Acuña Jr. watched with interest when Jarred Kelenic was thrown out at second base after failing to hustle out of the batter's box on a long drive in the Atlanta Braves' 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday night.
On Sunday, Acuña went to social media to criticize the way manager Brian Snitker handled the situation.
Acuña, recovering from surgery after tearing his left ACL last May, replied to a post on X by MLB.com reporter Mark Bowman on Sunday when Bowman was asked if Snitker had commented on Kelenic. Bowman posted that Snitker “protected Kelenic by replying: 'Was I supposed to' when asked if he had said anything to Kelenic.”
Acuña replied to Bowman's post “If it were me, they would take me out of the game.” The response by Acuña was removed about one hour later.
Snitker said after Sunday's 6-2 win over the Twins he didn't realize Kelenic failed to hustle on the play until Sunday.
“There’s no blanket thing,” said Snitker on his decisions on removing players for lack of hustle. “Quite honestly, you want to know the truth, I wasn’t watching that play. I knew he got thrown out at second. I didn’t see it until this morning and then I talked to him about it.”
Kelenic's drive on Saturday night bounced off the wall in right field and he was thrown out at second base by Trevor Larnach.
Acuña was removed from the Braves' 5-3 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Aug. 19, 2019. Then only 21 but already an All-Star, Acuña was slow to leave the batter's box on a long drive that bounced off the right-field wall for a long single.
Snitker waited one inning and then took out Acuña.
“He didn’t run. You’ve got to run,” Snitker said of Acuña after the 2019 game. “It’s not going to be acceptable here. As a teammate you’re responsible for 24 other guys. That name on the front is a lot more important than the name on the back of that jersey. You can’t do that. We’re trying to accomplish something and do something special here and personal things have got to be put on the backburner. You just can’t let your team down like that.”
When asked Sunday if he stood by his 2019 comment that failing to hustle is unacceptable, Snitker said “Yeah, if you don’t run and it’s a big time like that then yeah. But quite honestly I don’t look for (Kelenic) to not do it because he plays with his hair on fire all the time and he’s laying out. I didn’t know until I saw it this morning and I had a discussion with him and we got it squared away.”
When asked a follow-up question about Acuña's post, Snitker said “I didn’t see it and I haven’t talked with him and I heard it was taken down. I’m kind of into the fact that we swept the series and we’ve won three in a row right now.”
Acuña had his knee evaluated last week and has been cleared to begin cutting as he continues his rehabilitation. He could return to the Braves' lineup next month.
Acuña was hurt after 49 games last season and hit just .250 with four home runs, one year after winning the National League MVP with 41 home runs, 73 steals and a .337 batting average.
Kelenic, hitting only .180 after having one hit on Sunday, could lose his starting job when Acuña returns. The Braves had not won back-to-back games before sweeping the three-game series with the Twins as new leadoff hitter and left fielder Alex Verdugo got off to a quick start. Verdugo had four hits and drove in the go-ahead run on Saturday night and had one hit on Sunday.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Charles Odum, The Associated Press
