Acuña steals sixtieth base, eyes growing his personal unique membership
DENVER — Ronald Acuña Jr. moved a step faraway from records as he changed into serenaded with MVP chants while assisting the Braves roll to a 14-four win over the Rockies on Monday night at Coors Field.
Acuña hit his twenty ninth homer inside the 5th inning, stole his 60th base within the 7th after which multiplied his MLB-main stolen-base total to sixty one within the eighth inning.
He now stands as certainly one of four players to hit 20-plus homers and steal 60-plus bases inside the equal season.
Acuña joins Rickey Henderson (3 instances), Joe Morgan (two times) and Eric Davis because the simplest players to thieve 60-plus bases and hit 20-plus homers within the same season.
Henderson were the most latest to attain the plateau in 1990, while he hit 28 homers and swiped sixty five luggage for the A’s.
With one greater home run, Acuña turns into the primary participant in AL/NL history to record 30 steals and 60 stolen bases inside the equal season.
That’s a quite appropriate stat to reinforce his MVP resume.
“Anything he’s going to do in this recreation isn’t going to marvel me,” Braves manager Brian Snitker stated. “I suppose he’s that talented.”
Shortly after stealing his sixtieth base within the top of the seventh inning, Acuña became concerned in a doubtlessly scary incident in the backside of the inning.
A fan approached Acuña after he ran out to proper field apparently to take a selfie and, whilst protection rushed to the scene, every other fan approached and made touch with the outfielder, knocking him to the floor.
But the incident ended harmlessly, with Acuña giving the thumbs-up signal to the Braves dugout.
“I turned into a bit scared at the beginning,” he said later on, through an interpreter. “I suppose the fanatics were out there and soliciting for photos. … We’re all OK, and I hope they are OK.”
Left fielder Kevin Pillar was close by when the situation opened up.
“I don’t suppose they’d any unwell intentions,” he said. “I assume that became pretty obvious early on.”
Bryce Elder’s six-inning attempt become sponsored by using a two-run opposite-field domestic run from Austin Riley and a three-double night time via Sean Murphy.
But it turned into Acuña’s 4-hit performance that paced the Braves, who’ve tallied a double-digit run general in every of their beyond three games in opposition to the Rockies.
Acuña singled and tallied his second stolen base of the night time in the 8th.
Then, with MVP chants growing louder inside the 9th, he doubled off the left-middle-subject wall. He flirted with a -homer and -thieve night time. That could have been a pleasant manner to create the 30-60 club.
“Think approximately how long this recreation has been played and consider what number of excellent gamers have performed this game,
and he’s at the verge of doing some thing that has never been executed,” Pillar said. “It’s pretty terrific.
He hasn’t done it but, but I count on him to do it real soon.”
A 20-60 season isn’t quite as uncommon as 40-forty, but earlier than Acuña this season, there were three 40-forty seasons since the most latest 20-60 marketing campaign — and less players have accomplished the 20-60 mixture.
The only players to record forty homers and 40 steals in a season are Jose Canseco (1988), Barry Bonds (1996), Alex Rodriguez (1998) and Alfonso Soriano (2006).
Acuña was 3 steals shy of joining this club in 2019, when he was simply 21 years old.
This is a superb accomplishment for Acuña, who has spent this season reminding the baseball global of the way unique he may be while wholesome.
The pace he has shown this yr turned into muted remaining yr as he handled the lingering results of a chief knee damage (torn proper ACL) he suffered days earlier than the 2021 All-Star damage.