Newly married Ronald Acuña Jr. makes history with unprecedented home run, stolen base feat
After getting married earlier in the day, Atlanta Braves superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. made history Thursday night, with more than a month of the season to spare.
Acuña hit his 30th home run of the season, a grand slam off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Lance Lynn, and became the first player in Major League Baseball history with 30 home runs and 60 stolen bases in a single season.
That shot, paired with his 61 stolen bases, separates him from Barry Bonds and Eric Davis, the only players to hit 30 homers and steal at least 50 in one year. Bonds hit 33 home runs and stole 52 bases for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1990, while Davis hit 37 homers and stole 50 bases in just 129 games in 1987.
The historic feat came just hours after Acuña reached another important milestone in his life -- tying the knot with his longtime girlfriend, Maria Laborde.
The couple met four years ago and got engaged in January. They have two sons, 2-year-old Ronald Daniel and 11-month-old Jamall, but Maria's Venezuelan visa was going to expire at the end of the week, which would have forced her to leave the U.S. and not be able to return for three months.
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So Acuña got his business manager to put together a wedding on the fly.
"It means a lot to me," Acuña told ESPN. "The kids were born here, but the mom needs to come and go. I don't like that process. It's really a hassle. If we go to the playoffs, if we go to the World Series, and they're not with me, it's tough. I want my family to be here with me."
Acuña has more ahead of him, both off and on the field.
He has 29 games to add to his stellar season stats. With 10 more home runs, would become the fourth player in baseball history with a 40-homer, 40-steal season, joining Jose Canseco, Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Soriano.
While Canseco and Rodriguez's career exploits were tied to performance-enhancing drug use, Acuña had a different benefit — radical rules changes that created larger bases and confined pitchers to two pickoff attempts; an unsuccessful third attempt results in a balk.
As a result, stolen bases are up 39% over 2022, to 0.71 per team game, and Acuña has taken full advantage, swiping 61 in 72 attempts, eight more than No. 2 Esteury Ruiz of Oakland.
Yet Acuña also thrived on the bases before the rules changed. He stole a National League-leading 37 in 2019 that, combined with his 41 homers, left him just three steals shy of the 40-40 club at the tender age of 21. Still just 25, Acuna's .334 average and .983 OPS each rank third in the NL. Those stats combined with his unmatched power-speed combo, have him poised to win his first MVP award.
Contributing: Steve Gardner