ATLANTA -- Ronald Acuña Jr. has homered off plenty of Marlins pitchers. One that he’ll never forget is the home run he hit -- literally -- off a pair of Miami outfielders in an 11-3 win on Thursday night at Truist Park.
Acuña’s eighth-inning homer barely cleared the right-field wall. The other, which came in the third inning, will likely be seen on highlight and blooper videos for many years to come. Acuña now has 16 career multihomer games, four of which have come against Miami.
Janson Junk surrendered the wacky two-run homer, but an assist could be given to both center fielder Esteury Ruiz and left fielder Heriberto Hernández, whose collision on the left-center-field track caused the ball to hit off their gloves and clear the outfield wall.
This fortunate home run was further proof that everything is bouncing right for the Braves, who have won eight straight and 15 of 20 since the All-Star break. They concluded their three-game sweep with an eight-game division lead.
When Acuña connected with Junk’s sweeper, he took a few steps out of the box, casually discarded his bat and jogged slowly toward first base and stopped at the bag, seemingly thinking the ball had been caught.
What Acuña didn’t see was that the outfielders’ collision resulted in a home run. The ball hit Hernández’s glove just before Ruiz collided with his left fielder, causing the ball to bounce into the first row of seats beyond the left-center-field wall.
Acuña may have benefited from some lack of familiarity between the outfielders.
With left-handed starter Martín Pérez on the mound, the Marlins went with their right-handed-heavy lineup. So rather than play Jakob Marsee, who has started in center for 100 of the club's 116 games, Miami went with Ruiz as the captain of the outfield and Hernández in left. That duo has played side by side just 11 times this season.
The Marlins now share the distinction of having surrendered the most home runs (28) to Acuña. The Braves right fielder has routinely tortured Miami, producing a 1.036 OPS in the 102 career games he had played against them entering Thursday.
Acuña’s first home run was hit just before rain delayed the start of the fourth inning. Pérez faced the minimum through the first three innings, but was forced to exit after the one-hour, 24-minute delay.
Pérez’s effort was further backed by a four-run sixth inning that began with Matt Olson’s 32nd home run of the season. The Braves first baseman has hit 12 homers in his past 30 games, but none were as comical as Acuña’s.