NLDS: Acuña Watches Cardinals Edge Braves in Game 1

The Atlanta Braves' phenom Ronald Acuña Jr is a lot of things.

That's wonderful. However, one thing the club's not paying dude to do is be a spectator.

Especially when he's just hit a baseball hard and far.

And more especially, when this is the second time in less than two months Acuña hasn't learned his lesson about going all out when the time comes to go all out.

 

 

Indeed.

Apparently, the kid wasn't taking notes.

There the Braves were, at home in Game 1 of the NLDS, in prime position to set the tone in this series, with a chance to pile on the St Louis Cardinals by padding a 3-1 lead in the seventh inning.

And the phenom picks that occasion to go déjà vu, following it by going brain dead after he does get to second base:

 

It's never a good idea to give the opposition any sorta shot at coming back, something Braves vets knew and Acuña's now been reminded the hard way.

Cardinal bats woke up in the 8th and 9th, plating six runs before holding on to post a vital 7-6 road victory:

 

Being real, there's no way of knowing how the Braves' 7th woulda played out if Acuña had dialed in a bitta urgency. Still, there's no disputing he denied his team an opportunity.

 

There's no doubting dude's a game changer.

He's got talent oozing outta every speck of DNA in his body:

 

He's just gotta get the gray matter engaged.

Because when he doesn't, dude's still a game changer. Just not in a way his teammates would prefer.