Ronald Acuña Jr.’s revenge

You knew that Ronald Acuña Jr. was going to get his revenge.

Just eight days ago, Marlins pitcher José Ureña hit Acuña with the first pitch after hitting four homers in two days on Miami at SunTrust Park in Atlanta. It upset the Braves, and anybody in baseball that wants the culture of the game to improve, and has enjoyed watching the 20-year-old rake.

Thursday in Miami, Acuña got his revenge dinger in the top of the third inning. If the weather wasn’t so humid in south Florida, the baseball might have caught fire from the velocity — because that bad boy was going back to Cobb County.

Acuña’s first at bat was a fly out that came within five feet of securing yet another leadoff home run. It would have been slightly sweeter than the homer he hit, but it was still delicious revenge.

The home run was Acuña’s 21st of the season, and his 10th of the month — the most in the majors for the month of August.

Because as soon as Acuña made contact, he took a second to admire his masterpiece.

He then smoothly flipped the bat in a manner that calmly suggested the Marlins can enjoy that gift (that’s the nicest way I can put that on this here website).

Acuña was hit with another pitch three innings later, and he wasn’t nearly as cool about it this time as he was just over a week ago, chucking his helmet into the ground. However, this one was unintentional. If we’re keeping it real, not even the Marlins could be that dumb to hit Acuña again. They still have to deal with him for three more games this weekend, after all.

Acuña’s home run was a version of basketball’s famous saying of “ball don’t lie” when a questionable call has been made in a game. The premise of course being: the team who should have gotten the ball in the first place, ends up getting it anyway, or something more favorable happening in return.

In this case — as far as any Braves fans are concerned — Acuña was going to slap the leather and every last stitch off of one of those Ureña pitches in the first inning on August 15. Since he left that game and didn’t get a chance to on that night, he made up for it on the Marlins’ home turf.

It’s also important to remember that his home run was more than just a You Hit Me, So I’m Going To Get You Back With A Home Run type of deal.

Acuña was hit because of how much he was embarrassing the Marlins for his scorching-hot play. Not because of any other unwritten rule (which certainly wouldn’t make it better by any means, either). And here we are, just over a week later, and Acuña’s still dumping 26 ounces of kosher salt into the Marlins’ fragile wounds he carved with his Louisville Slugger.

While Acuña was still somewhat demonstrative after putting wood to leather, he wasn’t over the top with his quick gaze and casual bat flip. After what happened in the two teams’ last meeting, Acuña had the right to pimp his shit into the Atlantic Ocean, but he didn’t.

And Acuña really didn’t have to — the home run spoke for itself because he’s still as hot as when the Marlins got mad. There’s nothing they have been able to do to stop baseball’s hottest player, and he might not even be done hitting home runs this weekend.