PHILADELPHIA -- Phillies fans booed, and Ronald Acuña Jr. smiled.
He loved the hate so much on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park that he hopped out of the visitors’ dugout in the eighth inning to acknowledge them. Acuña’s curtain call followed a game-tying, three-run home run in the Braves’ 5-4 victory, which dropped the Phillies five games behind Atlanta in the NL East with 19 games to play.
"I love the fans from Philly because they boo me,” Acuña said. “So, that's motivation, I enjoy the environment."
Acuña is one of baseball’s slowest home-run trotters, but he really savored this one. He circled the bases in 32.36 seconds, his longest trot on an undisputed home run this year.
But if you don’t like it …
“Just don't give up homers in that spot,” Phillies rookie Alex McFarlane said. “He can do what he wants. I wasn't really focused on that. I was focused on making my pitch, and didn't make my pitch in that moment."
The Phillies are trying to clinch a fifth consecutive trip to the postseason. Along the way this month, they hope to learn who they can trust in the bullpen in October. Since Game 3 of the 2023 NLCS, the Phillies’ bullpen is 2-6 with a 5.58 ERA in the postseason. They have blown seven saves in seven opportunities with everybody from Matt Strahm to Carlos Estévez to Jeff Hoffman to Craig Kimbrel to Orion Kerkering to Jhoan Duran taking one on the chin.
The Phillies tried McFarlane on Sunday. Aaron Nola had allowed one run in seven innings for one of his best starts of the season. He has a 3.21 ERA (25 earned runs in 70 innings) in his last 12 starts. Derek Hill and Kyle Schwarber hit solo homers in the bottom of the seventh to extend the lead to 4-1.
“It was the right spot for [McFarlane] today,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said.
Right-hander Jonathan Bowlan pitched on Saturday, and the Phillies have noticed a dip in stuff when he pitches in consecutive games. Kerkering has an 8.44 ERA in 19 appearances since July 22.
McFarlane was 4-1 with a 0.79 ERA in his first 11 appearances. He had picked up big outs, but this would be his third appearance with the Phillies holding a lead of three or fewer runs. It would be his first pitching in the eighth inning or later with the game on the line like that.
“Alex is rested,” Mattingly said. “He’s been throwing the ball good.”
McFarlane allowed a one-out single and a double to put runners on second and third with one out, sending Acuña to the plate.
McFarlane threw Acuña seven consecutive fastballs. Six of the seven were at the top of the zone or higher.
McFarlane’s seventh heater touched 100.5 mph. It left Acuña’s bat at 105.9 mph.
"Every pitch was a fastball,” Acuña said. “I'm looking for a fastball every single [pitch]. I made good contact."
Why not throw something else there? McFarlane also throws a slider and a sweeper. He has seven of his 11 strikeouts on those two pitches. Opponents are batting .071 (1-for-14) against them.
"The plan was just to attack,” McFarlane said. “That was the plan there. And trust Stubby's [catcher Garrett Stubbs] calls, and trust myself to make those pitches. And just next time, making it more up in the zone, not in the zone."
The Braves scored a run on Duran in the ninth to win it.
“Now that you have the result, you'd say, 'Yes,'” said Mattingly, when asked if McFarlane should have thrown something offspeed. “But if he pops him up, you're like, 'You're good.' Just watching the at bat, you feel like you're beating him to most of those. And then like the sixth pitch was the first one I felt like he was on time. Maybe there it's something different. But I mean, I'm just kind of backseat quarterbacking.”
McFarlane will get more opportunities to prove himself this month. At the very least, they will see soon how he responds to this hiccup.
“I feel good about the way he’s going to respond,” Mattingly said.