You don’t have to like how the last inning of the Boston Red Sox-Atlanta Braves game transpired Tuesday night, but there should have been a part of you that said, “Wow, that was pretty cool” when Ronald Acuña Jr. made one of the best slides of the year to essentially seal the game for the Braves.
With the score knotted 7-7 as the 11th inning got underway at Fenway Park, Acuña singled to move the ghost runner (Michael Harris II) to third base and quickly swiped second base without a throw. Two batters later, Austin Riley hit a hard ground ball through the infield and the Braves got aggressive.
After Harris scored easily from third, Atlanta’s third base coach waved in Acuña, who was barely at the bag when Tommy Pham collected the ball in left field. The throw beat Acuña to the plate, but the Braves star was able to swerve around the tag, aided by Pham’s throw being a little too inside.
Relive the epic slide below.
It’s been well noted that the second run is the most important in extra innings, thanks to the ghost runner, and Acuña was able to provide it on an aggressive play that would have resulted in most players being dead to rights. The Red Sox went down quietly in the bottom of the 11th, with the Acuña slide serving as a deflating blow.
The Red Sox will look to rebound Wednesday night in the finale of their two-game series with the Braves. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET following an hour of pregame coverage, and you can watch it all on NESN.
