Atlanta Braves right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Ronald Acuna Jr. inches closer to exclusive club with another home run

Ronald Acuna Jr. continued his ridiculous 2023 campaign, inching closer to major league history on Friday night. In the Atlanta Braves' 8-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, Acuna smashed home run No. 35 of the year. He's now five away from joining the exclusive 40 homer/40 stolen base club.

If Acuna reaches 40 home runs, his 40/40 season will be by far the most unique. 

Acuna has already swiped more than enough bags, entering Friday with 63. In fact, of the four members of the 40/40 club, Alex Rodriguez had the most (46) in 1998. Meanwhile, to put Acuna's season into perspective, Alfonso Soriano (2006) finished with 41 steals, while Jose Canseco (1988) and Barry Bonds (1996) both had 40. 

The Braves have 22 games remaining, but that might be plenty of time for Acuna to reach the milestone. His homer on Friday night was his third over the last two games and his fifth in September. Another reason to believe Acuna will reach 40 home runs is that he's seemed to put stealing on the back burner, perhaps putting all his focus into hitting bombs. Since August 29 (10 games), Acuna has stolen only two bases after recording 11 in August.  

Recording three hits Friday, Acuna is only 10 away from 200 on the year. The last Brave to reach 200 hits was Ender Inciarte, who had 201 in 2017. 

Regardless of how the season ends for Acuna, he's posted a season baseball fans in the modern era haven't seen, and it could help him land some impressive hardware as the National League MVP.

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