PHILADELPHIA -- Phillies fans love to hate Ronald Acuña Jr. and the Braves star loves being the villain.
“They boo me every time and I enjoy that,” Acuña said with a smile.
The boos Acuña has heard throughout this weekend grew louder as he admired a game-tying home run in the eighth inning of the Braves’ 5-4 comeback win over the Phillies on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park. He took his time rounding the bases and then created his own curtain call, by stepping to the top of the dugout stairs and waving to the irritated fans.
“I love the fans from Philly because they boo me,” Acuña said. “So, that's motivation.”
Tyler Mahle threw six impressive innings. Dylan Lee halted his struggles with a scoreless eighth. Acuña put a triple-digit fastball into the seats and Austin Riley hit a game-winning triple in the ninth. A potentially frustrating day became a great day for the Braves, who are now five games ahead of the second-place Phillies in the National League East.
Along with strengthening their NL East lead, the Braves secured the season series by improving to 7-2 against the Phillies. The two teams will play just four more times this season. If they finish with identical records the season series would serve as the tiebreaker.
“To have a good year, you’ve got to be able to look back and have a handful of games or so that you say, 'How did we win that one?'” Braves manager Walt Weiss said.
The odds certainly weren’t in the Braves favor when Derek Hill and Kyle Schwarber hit solo homers off Dylan Dodd in the seventh to give the Phillies a 4-1 lead. Philadelphia had a 95 percent win probability when Riley flew out to begin the eighth.
But that probability dropped to 55 percent three batters later, when Acuña hit his game-tying homer off Alex McFarlane’s 100.5 mph fastball.
“The great ones rise to the occasion and that was huge,” Weiss said.
Acuña's homer came off of the third-fastest pitch a Braves player has homered off of in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008), behind Eddie Rosario's homer on a 101.2 mph pitch on Sept. 1, 2021 and Matt Olson's home run on a 101 mph pitch on April 10, 2022.
This was just the sixth recorded homer hit by a Braves player against a pitch clocked at 100-plus mph. In addition to those listed above, Chipper Jones hit one in 2008 and Dansby Swanson in 2022. Olson had accounted for the most recent, homering off Cam Schlitter’s 100 mph heater on August 9.
When asked why he threw the Braves outfielder seven straight fastballs, McFarlane said the plan was just to attack. Most of this season, that approach might have worked.
But much has changed since Aug. 27, when a struggling Acuña was given a night to rest. He was hitting just .119 (12-for-111) against four-seam fastballs at the time.
Acuña has hit .500 (17-for-34) with three doubles and three homers since Aug. 28. He has also hit .500 (6-for-12) against four-seamers during this stretch.
“It’s really just special what [Acuña] is capable of doing when he's right,” Riley said. “I mean 101 mph up and away. To pull that to the left-center with authority, I mean that takes a special player.”
Acuña admired his Statcast-projected 414-foot shot from the batter’s box before beginning his customary home run trot that has irritated Phillies fans many times, as recently as Saturday night when the 2023 NL MVP took Zack Wheeler deep. He did his usual Euro Step in front of third base and put his hands over his ears as he made his way toward the plate.
It took him 32.36 seconds to round the bases. This was the third slowest trot on a non-disputed home run during his career and the slowest trot on a non-disputed homer this season. It took him 33.44 seconds to round the bases after hitting the first of two homers against the Marlins on Aug. 6. But he briefly stopped at first base, not knowing the ball bounced over the wall after hitting the gloves of two Miami outfielders.
“In big games, [Acuña] steps it up to another level,” Mahle said. “It’s pretty special. I didn’t even know there could be another level. It’s pretty special to watch.”