After thrilling opener, what will Acuña, Betts do next?
Ronald Acuña Jr. and Mookie Betts are actually the main males on this weekend’s featured sequence between the 2 greatest groups in baseball, the Braves and Dodgers.
When you may have a matchup with a lot fanfare and star energy, you wish to see one of the best at their very best. And in the entertaining opener of this four-game set Thursday, Acuña and Betts, main off for his or her respective golf equipment, each confirmed why the NL MVP competitors is successfully a two-man race.
Acuña punctuated the Braves’ six-run second inning with a grand slam that gave him 30 dingers this season and positioned him in a power-speed membership with precisely one member. The clout additionally made Acuña the primary participant to succeed in the 30-homer, 30-steal plateau twice by his age-25 season. In the ninth inning, he picked up his 62nd stolen base, the second-most by a Braves participant since 1900. The franchise’s AL/NL report of 72 steals is unquestionably attainable for Atlanta’s dynamo.
However, Betts led the Dodgers’ cost again into the sport with a pair of residence runs — a three-run shot that traveled simply past Acuña’s outstretched glove in proper area within the fifth adopted by a solo homer within the seventh. It was Betts’ sixth multihomer recreation this yr, the second-most in MLB.
Betts’ 250th and 251st profession residence runs capped a exceptional month by which he was one of the best hitter in baseball. His August slash line was a ridiculous .455/.516/.839. His 1.355 OPS was greater than 100 factors increased than another certified batter. His 11 residence runs, giving him a career-high 38, had been his second-most throughout any month of his 10-year profession. And Betts’ 51 hits had been essentially the most by a Dodger in any month for the reason that group moved to Los Angeles in 1958.
The Braves finally prevailed, 8-7, in a recreation that lived as much as the hype, and with stars who stepped up to date. Acuña and Betts turned solely the third pair of beginning leadoff hitters to report a house run and 4 RBIs in the identical recreation since 1920, when RBI turned official.
This late-summer blockbuster in Hollywood continues tonight at 10:10 ET on MLB Network. What will Acuña and Betts do subsequent? With both of them, nothing is not possible.
