Atlanta Braves outfielder Marcell Ozuna received a large amount of boos from the home crowd in Atlanta on Sunday. It was the Braves slugger's first game back after he was arrested for driving under the influence on Friday.
Marcell Ozuna loudly booed after striking out in his first AB since his latest arrest. pic.twitter.com/AVOZ5Hgze9
— Baseball GIFs (@gifs_baseball) August 21, 2022
During Ozuna's first at-bat against the Houston Astros on Sunday, fans delivered a handful of boos when Ozuna stepped up to the plate in the second inning. Those boos got even louder once Ozuna was struck out by Astros starter Jose Urquidy. Though Ozuna was arrested early Friday morning, he ended up being released on bond later that morning.
The boos continued in the fifth inning when Ozuna struck out against Urquidy once again. Following that at-bat, the Braves put outfielder Eddie Rosario into the game in place of Ozuna.
Following Ozuna's arrest, the Braves released a statement stating that the "organization takes these matters very seriously and are obviously disappointed by the situation," but weren't commenting any further due to the fact that it's an ongoing legal scenario.
It is his second arrest in two years, as he was also arrested in May of 2021 on aggravated assault by strangulation and battery charges after police said they witnessed the veteran outfielder attacking his wife.
Those charges have since been dropped because Ozuna participated in a pretrial program. He also had to complete a 24-week family violence program, at least 200 hours of community course and an anger management course.
Ozuna, who is batting .213 with 20 home runs and 46 RBIs on the season, was placed on administrative leave in 2021 after Major League Baseball conducted an investigation into those assault and battery charges. Following that, Ozuna was suspended for 20 games for violating the league's domestic violence policy in November.
