Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. added another major milestone to his career, and he did it faster than anyone in Major League Baseball history.
Acuña launched a three-run homer as the Atlanta Braves rolled past the Washington Nationals 9-0, becoming the fastest player ever to accumulate 200 home runs and 200 stolen bases.
Ronald Acuña Jr. reached the 200/200 mark in his 904th career game, beating the previous record held by Alfonso Soriano. Soriano needed 929 games to reach it, doing so in August 2006 while playing for Washington against Atlanta.
Acuña Makes MLB History With One Swing
Acuña’s historic swing came in the seventh inning. With Atlanta already leading 3-0, he drove a ball into left-center for his 14th home run of the season, stretching the Braves’ advantage to six runs.
The home run wasn’t Acuña’s only contribution to the record books. He also stole his 225th career base and 20th of the season after opening the sixth inning with a single against Riley Cornelio.
That inning turned what had been a long, scoreless afternoon into a comfortable Atlanta lead.
Cornelio struck out the next two hitters following Acuña’s steal. Washington then intentionally walked Michael Harris II, bringing Sean Murphy to the plate with two runners aboard. Murphy made the Nationals pay for the decision, driving a three-run homer to left for his third home run in five games.
Suddenly, Atlanta led 3-0.
Rain Delay Interrupts a Bases-Loaded Threat
Until then, weather had played nearly as large a role as either offense.
Acuña singled off Nationals starter Brad Lord to begin the fourth. A walk and an error eventually loaded the bases, but rain arrived before Atlanta could capitalize. The game was stopped for 1 hour and 25 minutes.
When play resumed, Cornelio replaced Lord and immediately worked his way out of trouble, retiring Murphy and Mike Yastrzemski to strand the bases loaded.
Atlanta’s pitching staff had far fewer problems.
Grant Holmes was perfect through the first three innings, needing just 26 pitches to retire all nine Nationals he faced before the rain delay ended his outing. Dylan Dodd followed with a scoreless inning, and Elieser Hernández handled the next three frames while allowing only two hits.
Washington didn’t record its first hit until James Wood singled with two outs in the sixth. Hernández improved to 2-0 as Atlanta’s pitchers kept the Nationals off the scoreboard.
Washington also lost catcher Keibert Ruiz during the fourth inning after he was struck in the mask by a foul ball.
Braves Head to Philadelphia After Acuña’s Record Day
But the afternoon ultimately belonged to Acuña.
The 200th homer put him into a select statistical club, but the speed with which he combined those home runs with more than 200 stolen bases separated him from everyone who came before him. At 904 games, he erased 25 games from Soriano’s previous benchmark.
Atlanta now heads to Philadelphia for a four-game series beginning Friday. Left-hander Chris Sale, carrying a 13-9 record and 2.06 ERA, is scheduled to face Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez, who enters at 16-4 with a 2.52 ERA.
Washington will travel west and open a series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday.
