MILWAUKEE -- Luis Lara thought he had a double, and Ronald Acuña Jr. made sure that idea didn’t last long.
On Friday afternoon, Lara sent a Chris Sale slider slicing down the right-field line and took off for second, hoping to turn a hit into extra bases. Acuña got there before the ball could reach the wall, gathered it cleanly, spun, and fired a 92.3 mph throw on a line to Mauricio Dubón, cutting Lara down when he tried to stretch it. Then came the detail that made the play feel bigger than just an out: Lara glanced toward right field and smiled, and Acuña smiled right back.
For Lara, a 22-year-old Brewers rookie, the moment carried a little more weight than the average baserunning mistake.
“In the moment, the adrenaline of the game is going and really all I’m trying to do is find a way to get to second base,” Lara said through team translator Daniel de Mondesert. “But after, incredible. He definitely is my favorite player.”
That reaction says plenty about where Acuña is in his career. He’s 28 now, long past the point where he’s just one of the league’s young stars. Players who grew up watching him are now standing across from him on Major League fields, and Lara is one of them.
Acuña said the two Venezuelan outfielders have been exchanging direct messages for a couple of years, and this weekend gave them a chance to catch up in person. He said he was flattered to hear Lara call him his favorite player, and he said he enjoys getting to know the wave of young Venezuelan talent reaching the Majors.
His reach goes well beyond Venezuela, though. Acuña has become one of baseball’s most recognizable players because his game has always had a little something extra to it - the arm sleeves, the chains, the emotion, the celebrations, the aggression on the bases, the willingness to try things most players wouldn’t. The style works because the skill is real.
Friday was a perfect snapshot.
“I’m not surprised that he tried to stretch it into a double because, I mean, 99 times out of 100, that’s a double,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said.
But not when Acuña is in right field.
“Acuña -- that’s probably the best outfield arm in the game,” Weiss said. “We’ve seen him do it several times.
It’s not only the strength, but it’s the accuracy. I mean, it’s a phenomenal throw.”
There was even a little amusement on the Brewers side about who got caught by that arm.
“Part of me is happy that it happened to Lara, to Lara’s favorite player there, getting thrown out,” Brewers catcher William Contreras said through de Mondesert. “Now he knows a little more about who Acuña is.”
Contreras laughed, but he also pointed to something that goes deeper than one play.
“We are all teammates here through Venezuela,” Contreras said. “On the field we might be enemies, but off the field we’re family as Venezuelans.”
That thread has run through Acuña’s career since he debuted in 2018 as a 20-year-old phenom from La Guaira, Venezuela. Eight years later, he’s not just part of the next wave. He’s helping shape it.
Brewers assistant coach Nestor Corredor saw that firsthand when Acuña and Lara caught up after Friday’s game. Asked about Lara looking up to Acuña, Corredor didn’t overcomplicate it.
“Acuña is Lara’s favorite player,” Corredor said. “He’s everyone’s favorite.”
Lara may be taking more than just inspiration from him, too.
An inning after Acuña threw him out at second, Lara made a leaping grab at the center-field wall to rob Matt Olson of extra bases. He kept flashing that kind of outfield skill Saturday as well, showing the instincts and athleticism that have made him one of Milwaukee’s more exciting young players.
Weiss didn’t draw a direct line to Acuña, but he liked what he saw.
“He’s just a good-looking player,” Weiss said of Lara. “Really good jumps, really good routes, closes on the ball really well. … He’s got really good instincts out there.”
Then, on Sunday in Williamsport at the Little League Classic, Acuña got another reminder of how wide his reach has become. Surrounded by Little Leaguers looking for autographs and a chance to be near one of the players they see on TV, he signed, talked and interacted with kids meeting Major League stars up close.
Somewhere in that crowd could have been another Lara.
Before Lara was trying to turn a single into a double against Acuña, he was a young Venezuelan player watching him just like everybody else.
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