On Tuesday, during the Braves 8-7 extra innings loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, during his fourth at bat, Braves outfielder, Ronald Acuna Jr. was drilled in the back by a 91 mph pitch from Arizona pitcher, Humberto Castellanos. The incident came after Acuna’s previous at bat in which he hit an RBI double, flipping is bat in route to first and would later be thrown out at third as he attempted to stretch the hit into a triple.
Obviously frustrated with Acuna’s third inning appearance at the plate, Castellanos was visited by Diamondbacks’ catcher, Daulton Varsho when Acuna came up for his next at bat and following the mound visit by Varsho, Acuna was drilled by the very next pitch, to which his displeasure with Castellanos’ move was very evident as he initially motions towards the Arizona pitcher, but eventually the home plate umpire and Varsho kept the two from getting together.
As the baseball world reacted to Acuna being hit by the Castellanos pitch, many believed that the move was intentional, including Jon Chuckery, who asked on his show Wednesday night, “when are we going to knock somebody down,” as his expressed his disappointment in the fact that in the past 104 games that Acuna has played in, he has been hit 13 times, with four of those hit by pitchers happening this season. Chuckery goes on to say that he feels the Braves need to start retaliating and “protect your superstar”, adding, “knock somebody down”.
Click link above to here interview in it’s entirety: