Acuña Becomes Fastest to 200 Homers, 200 Steals in Braves Win

Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a three-run homer to become the fastest player in major league history to reach 200 home runs and 200 stolen bases, as the Atlanta Braves beat the Washington Nationals 9-0 on Wednesday.

Acting on his 14th home run of the season, Acuña connected on a drive to left-center in the seventh inning to make it 6-0. He needed just 904 games to reach the 200/200 club, breaking the previous record of 929 games set by Alfonso Soriano in August 2006 — a milestone Soriano also reached while playing against the Braves, for the Nationals.

Acuña had already stolen the 225th base of his career and his 20th of the season earlier in the game, swiping second after a leadoff single in the sixth inning against reliever Riley Cornelio (2-2). Cornelio struck out the next two batters before Sean Murphy, walked intentionally to load the bases after Michael Harris II reached, hit a three-run homer of his own to break a scoreless tie — his third homer in five games.

A rain delay of 1 hour, 25 minutes interrupted the game in the fourth inning, shortly after Acuña led off with a single off Nationals starter Brad Lord. A walk and an error had loaded the bases before the delay; when play resumed, Cornelio retired Murphy and Mike Yastrzemski to escape the jam.

Braves starter Grant Holmes needed only 26 pitches to retire the first nine Nationals batters before the delay. Dylan Dodd worked a scoreless inning in relief, and Elieser Hernández (2-0) pitched the final three innings, allowing two hits, including James Wood's two-out single in the sixth — Washington's first hit of the game.

Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz left the game in the fourth inning after taking a foul ball off his mask.

The Braves next send left-hander Chris Sale (13-9, 2.06 ERA) to the mound Friday at Philadelphia, opposing Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez (16-4, 2.52 ERA) in the opener of a four-game series. The Nationals begin a series at the Los Angeles Dodgers the same day.