Sometimes a home run is about power. Sometimes it is about placement. And sometimes, as Ronald Acuña Jr. found out on Thursday, Aug. 6, it is about the rule book.
Acuña was awarded a 390-foot home run at Truist Park after Heriberto Hernandez and Esteury Ruiz collided in the outfield and accidentally flipped the ball over the fence. The Braves took a 2-0 lead in the third inning, and the unusual ruling gave Acuña his 10th homer of the season.
Why the play counted as a homer
The call was rooted in Rule 5.05(a), which covers a fair fly ball that is deflected over the fence in fair territory. In other words, the ball did not need to clear the wall on its own. Once the collision sent it over the fence, the umpires ruled it a home run.
That is what made the play so unusual, and also why it was not a discretionary judgment call so much as a direct application of the rules. Acuña hit the ball; the Marlins outfielders created the rest.
The play also fits into a small but memorable category of odd home-run rulings. It recalled Jose Canseco's legendary play in 1993, when a ball got sent over the wall and helped Cleveland win 7-6. It also brought back the 2021 divisional playoff series at Fenway, when Kevin Kiermaier's drive hit the wall, bounced off Hunter Renfroe and went into the bullpen.
What it meant in the game
The immediate impact was simple: Atlanta stretched the lead to 2-0 in the third inning. The game then went into a rain delay after the bottom of the third, but the inning already had its defining moment.
For Acuña, the details matter because the homer will count the same as any other in the box score, even if the route to the fence looked nothing like a normal blast. For the Braves, it was another reminder that in baseball, the weird plays are often the ones that change the scoreline fastest.
And for the Marlins, it was one of those defensive sequences that will linger long after the inning ended. A fly ball was hit. Two outfielders collided. The ball went over the fence. The rules did the rest.
