Ronald Acuña Jr. drives in four runs in zany 10-9 Braves spring win over Blue Jays

In what was quite easily the weirdest game of spring training so far, the Atlanta Braves outslugged the Toronto Blue Jays 10-9 with four of those 10 runs being driven in by none other than the reigning National League MVP, himself: Ronald Acuña Jr.

The first inning was an extremely inauspicious one for the Braves, as Raisel Iglesias got the ball to start off the bullpen game. If you’re going to give up three hits during one appearance at any point, you don’t want those hits to be triple-homer-homer. That’s exactly how the first inning went for Iglesias, as he gave up a leadoff triple to Ernie Clement, helped bring him in with a wild pitch and then proceeded to get hit far and deep by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Daniel Vogelbach to go down 3-0 with just one out. The positive of this inning is that Iglesias did, in fact, record three strikeouts during the inning. Still, it was just one of those frames for Iglesias and it’s just good that it happened during spring training and not in an actual game.

While the first inning saw the Blue Jays jump all over the Braves, the second inning saw Toronto extend their lead thanks to a scene that wouldn’t be out of place at any Little League ballpark across America. With one out in the second, Aaron Bummer got Nathan Lukes to hit a tough bouncer into the no-man’s land area down the third base line. Bummer should’ve pocketed the ball and let Lukes have the infield single but instead he attempted to throw him out at first. His throw got by Olson and Lukes kept going and made a push for third base. Ronald Acuña Jr. unleashed a laser beam of a throw in an attempt to gun down Lukes at third but his throw skipped by Austin Riley and just like that, Nathan Lukes had just hit a Little League home run to make it 4-0 for Toronto. Again, it's good that this happened during spring and not during the regular season!

Fortunately for Atlanta, things got a lot better for the Braves from the third inning, onwards. Atlanta cashed in a leadoff double in the third inning from Orlando Arcia with a pair of productive outs in order to get on the board but they did fall behind 5-1 after A.J. Minter gave up the second unearned run of the day in the fifth inning. This was after Ernie Clement turned a leadoff single and a stolen base into a run scored after Austin Riley's error. Aside from Ronald Acuña Jr. nailing Nathan Lukes at second base on an outfield assist (but not getting credit for it because the umpire missed the call), this wasn't exactly a banner day on defense for Atlanta.

In fact, it wasn't a banner day for the Blue Jays in the field, either. The Braves got right back in the exhibition contest with a four-run fifth inning that started with Orlando Arcia and Jarred Kelenic (!) both hitting one-out singles and setting the table for Ronald Acuña Jr. to mash a gapper to plate them both with an RBI double. The next run came in after Davis Schneider fielded a grounder from Ozzie Albies and delivered a throw to the general area of first base that was reminiscent of what you'd see from Chuck Knoblauch during his struggles with the yips. Acuña scored on the error, Ozzie reached second base and then Austin Riley plated Ozzie with a single to tie the game up.

The sixth inning saw the Braves pull ahead and that was thanks to Sean Murphy finally making an appearance on the Grapefruit League's home run board. After that happened, Arcia took a walk and then Kelenic picked up his second hit of the day (!!!) to once again set the table for Acuña to do some damage. This time there was no gapper but Acuña hit one deep enough to plate Arcia and make it a 7-5 game. Just like that, Ronald Acuña Jr. had four RBIs on one hit, one sacrifice fly and one productive ground out. It was the type of day that shows just how dangerous and productive Acuña can be on any given day.

Most of the regulars for both teams left the game once the seventh inning rolled around and if you thought that meant that things were going to calm down with the new faces in the game, then you were sadly mistaken. The seventh inning was only the second scoreless inning of the entire game but things ramped up again for the eighth and the ninth innings. Toronto got back on the board after scoring on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch from Jonathan Hughes but the Braves answered right back in their half of the eighth after Rafael Lantigua's throwing error plated Nick Ward and Justin Dean.

It was 9-6 in favor of the Braves heading into the ninth inning but the Blue Jays decided that they were not going to go quietly to the buses this afternoon. The Braves were an out away from winning the game but Rafael Lantigua made up for his error in the eighth by hitting a two-run dinger to keep the game going and then actual-teenager Arjun Nimmala hit a solo shot to tie the game at nine and force the bottom of the ninth inning to happen. The good news for the Braves is that this game was far too wacky to end in a draw, so Leury Garcia sent the fans home happy with a walk-off double to plate Nick Ward and end the game 10-9 in favor of Atlanta.

You always expect a bullpen game to be a bit stranger than a usual baseball game but this was a different level. Both teams combined for five errors, four unearned runs, 19 runs total and 21 hits. Pitching and defense were seemingly optional today but it has to be mentioned that Joe Jiménez, Tyler Matzek and Pierce Johnson all made scoreless appearances while they were on the mound, so that's encouraging.

Overall, this was a very strange game to watch and quite honestly, I'm glad that it was televised on Bally Sports since this was the perfect type of showcase that really lets you know just how wild and wacky these spring training games can get at times. Your next dose of spring training madness is set to be delivered at 1:05 P.M. E.T. tomorrow as Charlie Morton gets the start against the New York Yankees.