A pair of Cubs announcers had no use for celebrating Ronald Acuna Jr.’s historic 40-70 season during the middle of Wednesday’s game.
And moments later, perhaps thanks to karma, Acuna scored the game-winning run that moved the Cubs out of the playoff picture with four games remaining in the season.
Acuna Jr., who is battling Mookie Betts for NL MVP, became the first player in MLB history to steal 70 bases and hit 40 homers Wednesday when he swiped his 70th base in the 10th inning of the Braves’ 6-5 walk-off win.
The Braves stopped the game after the steal — with the teams tied, 5-5 — to honor Acuna with a highlight montage, even though the Cubs’ season hangs on every game.
Cubs announcers Jon “Boog” Sciambi and Jim Deshaies — part of the Marquee Sports Network — had no time for celebrating Acuna.
“We’re really stopping the game to do a highlight montage?” Sciambi asked.
“Can we get the base after the game? This is pretty absurd. It’s a hell of an accomplishment…,” Deshaies said.
“Totally, but you can’t stop the game to run a highlight montage,” Sciambi said.
One pitch later, Ozzie Albies ripped a walk-off RBI single to right that dropped the Cubs into a tie with the Marlins, who own the head-to-head tiebreaker over them.
It’s been a tough two days in Atlanta for the Cubs with the North Siders blowing late leads in back-to-back games to slip out of the postseason picture.
The Cubs led 5-0 on Tuesday but allowed two runs in both the seventh and eighth innings in a 7-6 loss.
Wednesday’s game featured the Cubs blowing a 3-1 lead before grabbing a 4-3 advantage in the ninth inning that went to waste when Marcell Ozuna homered off Mark Leiter Jr. in the bottom of the inning.
The Cubs (82-76) finish up this three-game set with Atlanta on Thursday before ending the season in Milwaukee against the Brewers, who are locked into the third seed as the NL Central champions.
The Marlins (82-76) own the tiebreaker against the Cubs after winning four of six matchups this season, and finish their three-game set with the Mets on Thursday and then end the season in Pittsburgh against the eliminated Pirates.
