Sandy Alcantara and Ronald Acuña Jr. definitely sound like they are on the verge of fighting
After Sandy Alcantara hit Ronald Acuña Jr., we nearly got a bench-clearing brawl in Houston.
The Atlanta Braves slugger took the Miami Marlins starting pitcher deep in the first at-bat of the afternoon for Atlanta. Miami and Acuña don’t exactly have the best working relationship. He gets hit by pitches twice as often as he does against the other 28 teams in the MLB. Had Acuña charged the mound after getting beaned by Alcantara, yeah, they would have gotten into a fight.
It may not be pay-per-view event when Alcantara takes on Acuña after all.
We will have at least two more games in this increasingly bitter NL East rivalry series. The Braves took Game 1 over the Fish in this best-of-five NLDS series. The winner of this round will face the winner of the other NLDS between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres in the 2020 NLCS. Atlanta is playing great ball, but the Marlins have never lost a postseason series.
When the eight-team League Division Series field was set, we were certain the 2020 ALDS between the Oakland Athletics and the Houston Astros would be the series with the most animus. Well, as it turns out, there is nothing but bad blood between the Braves and the Marlins. Atlanta can’t afford for Acuña to lose his head, which is what the Fish are hoping he does.
Tensions are always high in October, but when rivalries intensify like this, it may come to blows.