By Jacob Calvin Meyer - The Washington Times - Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Travis d’Arnaud has discovered his next career.

When the Braves catcher retires from baseball, his agent may start getting calls from Hollywood after seeing his superb acting on Tuesday night.

In the eighth inning of the Braves’ blowout of the Nationals, d’Arnaud was lightly pegged by a 52-mph pitch from Dee Strange-Gordon. Gordon, a position player, was pitching for the Nationals in what ended up being a 16-4 blowout, and d’Arnaud reacted humorously when the pitch hit his shoulder.

“Walking up, I was thinking, ’If I get hit, I’m just going to flop down,’” d’Arnaud told reporters after the game, per MLB.com’s Scott Chiusano. “I almost spoke it into existence. It was fun.”

The hit by pitch went viral on social media, with some noting that d’Arnaud’s flop reminded them of soccer or basketball players. Gordon didn’t take offense to the joke, tagging d’Arnaud in an Instagram comment later: “Sorry I almost killed you bro,” with a laughing emoji.

“It’s okay brosef. I still love you,” d’Arnaud responded.

While Gordon allowed three runs in one inning, he wasn’t the team’s worst pitcher on Tuesday. Starter Patrick Corbin gave up nine hits and six runs in 2 2/3 innings, while reliever Austin Voth allowed four hits and three runs in 1 1/3 innings. 

The lone positive of the night for the Nationals was Juan Soto hitting career home run No. 100 — becoming the eighth youngest player in MLB history to accomplish the feat. 

• Jacob Calvin Meyer can be reached at jmeyer@washingtontimes.com.

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