House That Hank Built
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3 Atlanta Braves takeaways from a glorious night in Southern California

By Alan Carpenter

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 12: Luke Jackson #77 of the Atlanta Braves reacts to defeating the San Diego Padres 5-3 in a game at PETCO Park on July 12, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 12: Luke Jackson #77 of the Atlanta Braves reacts to defeating the San Diego Padres 5-3 in a game at PETCO Park on July 12, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /
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SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 12: Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves is congratulated in the dugout after hitting a solo homerun during the fifth inning of a game against the San Diego Padres at PETCO Park on July 12, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 12: Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves is congratulated in the dugout after hitting a solo homerun during the fifth inning of a game against the San Diego Padres at PETCO Park on July 12, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

3. Don’t Mess With Ronnie

The 1st pitch of the 5th inning may have had some purpose to it.  It almost certainly did, in fact.

It is well known that Ronald Acuña Jr likes to ‘ambush’ 1st pitch fastballs.  It seems that Dinelson Lamet, pitching for the Padres, didn’t want to be an ambush victim on this AB.

So Acuna got a 94 mph heater… up and into his kitchen.

That clearly got the attention of the kid.

The place you’d normally guess a next pitch to be thrown after a brushback like that would be low and near the outside edge of the plate… but it would need to be thrown for a strike since – from the pitcher’s point of view – you wouldn’t want to go to a 2-0 count against Acuña.

That next pitch was listed as a slider… but it had the look of a changeup with some (not a lot) of movement.  84 mph.

Ronald Acuna hit that ball out of the stadium.

It’s a little hard to see this, but the ball simply never landed in the stands.  Had it been a few feet toward the left field side, it would have hit the 2nd deck… but it didn’t.  Nobody caught it… you can just see a gesture toward the empty space where the stands end from one fan out there.

The other thing to notice was the number of upraised arms  in the lower bowl – indicating the number of Braves’ fans at the game.  This wasn’t an insignificant number!

But this ball was destroyed:

I’m not sure how you hit an 84 mph pitch that far, but while that 1st pitch had ‘purpose’, this swing had ‘payback’ written all over.

Maybe Josh Donaldson is heating up, but perhaps Lamet may have awakened El Abusador as well.

Final Thoughts

Dallas Keuchel is ready to rock:  7 innings and only a solo homer by Manny Machado soiled his line.  True – there were 10 base-runners, but as a ground-ball pitcher will do, he also had 3 double plays turned behind him.

The Atlanta Braves are coming out of the second half gate hot, and beating the Padres in California is a really good way to get started.

Next. Ready to start a Boyd Band?. dark

This is starting to look like a determined team with purpose for October.

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