Keith Hernandez on Ronald Acuna: "You Gotta Hit Him"

New York Mets analyst Keith Hernandez weighed in on the topic of the day: the seemingly intentional beaning of red-hot rookie Ronald Acuna on the first pitch of the game. His take? Had to be done. After all, Acuna had hit some homers in recent games. Can’t have that go unpunished.

Hernandez almost steered clear of the astonishingly bad take when he talked about knocking Acuna down with an inside pitch, but couldn’t resist going into detail on where the 97 mph fastball should be aimed. He suggested the back or “fanny.”

He was right about one thing. People aren’t going to like it.

Of course it’s smart for an opposing team to make a hot hitter move his feet or move him off the plate with a pitch inside. But it says a lot about the state of game that a person in Hernandez’s position can not only defend the Acuna beaning, but go the extra mile and sanction it if was, in fact, intentional.

Surprising stuff.