Jack Flaherty Calls Out Ronald Acuña for His Reaction to Being Hit By Pitch

The St. Louis Cardinals punched the Atlanta Braves straight in the mouth on Wednesday, as they bulldozed their way to a 13-1 victory in Game 5 of the NLDS. While plenty of credit can be given to the Cardinals bats for knocking in ten runs in the first inning, the rest can be given to starting pitcher Jack Flaherty, who struck out eight batters in six innings of work.

Even in victory, Flaherty took aim at Ronald Acuña Jr. for his actions during the game.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, a Flaherty pitch struck Acuña, and the young Braves star took exception to it by angrily gesturing to the pitcher's mound as he took first base. Flaherty took aim at Acuña's antics.

"We were trying to go in," said Flaherty, via Cardinals beat writer Jeff Jones. "We've got two strike on him, we were trying to go in. If we're gonna go in, we're gonna go in tight. It hit him, he took exception to it, that's the guy he wants to be, that's how it is. He's been having all his antics all series. The guy hits a ball off the wall, he gets a single out of it. So he wants to take exception to it, he can do whatever he wants. He can talk all he wants. But we tried to go in, we talk, our scouting report is go in, we go in. So, it got away, it hit him, he wants to take exception to it, he can do whatever he wants."

As you can tell, Flaherty didn't take to kindly to Acuña making a hand motion to him, especially when the Cardinals are up by 12 runs. Flaherty questioned why he though Acuña would think he'd plunk him if he already had two strikes on him.

Acuña has gotten under the skin of Cardinals closer Carlos Martinez for pimping a home run in NLDS Game 1. The Braves outfielder even ticked off teammate Freddie Freeman for not hustling out of the batter's box.

While Ronald Acuña Jr. is one of the league's brightest stars, it appears that he's already secured his role as the most mercurial player in MLB in just his second season.