The Atlanta Braves have had an incredibly frustrating 2025 season marred by both injuries and inconsistent play, resulting in the team severely underperforming after coming into the year with very high expectations. During Wednesday’s game against the Miami Marlins, Ronald Acuña Jr. nearly let all of his frustrations about the disappointing year out on pitcher Ryan Gusto.
Whether intentional or not, the Marlins had hit Acuña with pitches on eight different occasions leading into Wednesday’s game, which is far and away the most that any team has hit him.
In the top of the third inning, Acuña stepped to the plate after his teammate Matt Olsen had hit a two-run home run. The first pitch that Acuña saw ran and hit him on the elbow, which he immediately took exception to.
Acuña took several steps to the pitcher’s mound and had some choice words to say to Gusto, which led to both benches clearing in case there was an altercation.
Ultimately, cooler heads would prevail, as Acuña would walk to first base before continuing to jaw back and forth with Gusto. But on the Marlins broadcast, color analyst Tommy Hutton argued that if Acuña was truly all that upset about being hit, he should have avoided the back-and-forth shouting and simply charged the mound.
“If you are that mad, charge him,” said Hutton. “If you’re that mad, go after him! See, you don’t see that anymore.”
Benches cleared after Ronald Acuña was hit by an inside pitch after Matt Olson homered
Marlins broadcaster was saying if Acuña was really that mad he should’ve charged him pic.twitter.com/fvlgByRoop
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 27, 2025
Braves beat writer for MLB.com, Mark Bowman, hilariously described how he has “seen more animosity in handshake lines” than this rather timid benches-clearing incident. So, if Acuña was trying to convey the message that he was furious at Gusto without resorting to violence, he didn’t exactly do that.
Brian Snitker, the Braves manager, arguably seemed to be more upset about Acuña getting hit than anybody, getting ejected after taking issue with the umpire issuing warnings to both teams for Gusto’s errant pitch, even though no Braves player was at fault for what happened.
It would be the Braves who got the last laugh, coming away with a 12-1 victory. But clearly, Hutton, who played in an era where mound charging was far more common, was seemingly hoping for a bit more excitement when it came to Acuña’s benches-clearing incident.