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Atlanta Braves rightfielder Ronald Acuña Jr has made history with his 40th home run of the season, coming off of Washington Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin. 

Acuña becomes only the fifth player in Major League Baseball history with 40 home  runs and 40 (or more) stolen bases in a season, joining Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Alfonso Soriano. 

Ronald's been able to do it with dominant performances on the basepaths, and has by far the highest stolen base total for anyone in that exclusive group: 

Year Player Team HRs SBs

1988

Jose Canseco

Oakland Athletics

42

40

1996

Barry Bonds

San Francisco Giants

42

40

1998

Alex Rodriguez

Seattle Mariners

42

46

2006

Alfonso Soriano

Washington Nationals

46

41

2023

Ronald Acuña Jr

Atlanta Braves

40

68

Canseco won the MVP award in 1988 and led his Oakland Athletics to the World Series, two feats that Ronald is hoping to emulate. 

It's not the first time that Acuña's flirted with a 40/40 season. He finished the 2019 season with 41 home runs and 37 stolen bases, coming in 5th in the MVP voting and winning a Silver Slugger for his efforts. 

But this season's been a new level of dominance for Acuña. He's more than halved his strikeout rate from a career average of 25.2% to just 11.2% entering this week, and it's fueled him to set career highs in hits, runs, extra base hits, and RBIs while setting a new career-low in strikeouts for a season (excluding the shortened 2020 season). 

This article first appeared on FanNation Braves Today and was syndicated with permission.

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