Ronald Acuna Jr. Powers Braves to NL East Title; Carlos Correa Belts a Pair in Houston Win

Players of the Day for Friday, September 20, 2019

Correa: 2 HR, 3 RBI

American League

Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and Carlos Correa each socked fist inning home runs and the Braves inched closer to their third straight AL West pennant with a 6-4 win over the LA Angels.

After his two-run shot in the first, Correa connected again in the third inning with a solo shot to left center. The pair of homers give him 21 on the year, along with 59 RBI in a season in which he's been out of action due to injuries twice for extended periods.

Correa missed all of June and most of July and has just returned - this was his second game back - from another month off due to a sore back. In all, he's missed nearly half the season, sitting out 80 games.

Key to Houston's success in winning the World Series in 2017, the 24-year-old shortstop and 2015 AL Rookie of the Year provides slick fielding and a potent bat to the middle of the Astros' lineup.

With their magic number at one, all Houston needs to do to clinch the division is win Saturday against the visiting Angels or have Oakland lose Saturday's game against the Texas Rangers. Houston has won six straight.

The Astros cracked 100 wins for the third straight year. In 2017, they won 101 games, and 103 in 2018. This year's squad appears to be the most potent of recent vintages. The are 101-53 and are 1 1/2 games up on the Yankees for the best AL record.

Oakland is eight game behind the Astros in the West, but holds a two-game edge on both Tampa Bay and Cleveland in the wild card race. All three have eight games left to play.

National League

Acuna Jr.: 2-2, 3 R, 2 RBI

Mike Foltynewicz threw eight innings of shutout ball and Ronald Acuna Jr. stroked his 41st home run of the year, leading the Braves to a 6-0 win over San Francisco and their second straight NL East pennant.

Fans and players alike exploded exuberantly when Acuna made the final out on a short fly ball to center. The second-year player was on base all night, going 2-for-2 with a pair of walks, a double and his home run. Acuna, who scored three times, surpassed the 100-RBI threshold with his two-run poke in the fifth inning. He has 101 on the year.

Voted NL Rookie of the Year in 2018 when he batted .293, hit 26 homers, drove in 64 runs, scored 78 times, and swiped 16 bases in 111 games, Acuna verified the voters' choice this season, batting .281, with 41 homers, 101 RBI, 126 runs and 37 steals. He can still add to his totals, as the Braves still have seven games left in the regular season.

Winning the NL East with a 92-70 mark in 2018, eight games better than the Washington Nationals, the Braves are even more potent this season with a 95-60 mark and a 9 1/2 game edge on the Nats. Already assured of the second-best record in the league, they have an outside chance of catching the Dodgers for the best record should they stumble in the final week. LA has a 4 1/2 game lead, at 99-55 and clinched the West division on September 9.

Atlanta has two more home games with San Francisco, Saturday and Sunday, before finishing up the regular season on the road with two in Kansas City and three in New York against the Mets.

In the wild card race, St. Louis defeated the Cubs in Chicago for the second straight day, winning, 2-1, while Milwaukee won for the 13th time in their last 15 tries, whipping the Pirates, 10-1. With Washington taking down Miami 6-4, the Brewers have taken over the second wild card, a game behind the Nationals, with the Cubs now trailing the Brewers by two games.

St. Louis continues to lead the NL Central by three games over Milwaukee. Chicago has fallen to five back.

Ronald Acuna Jr., Freddie Freeman Lead Braves Past Dodgers; Jesus Aguilar Helps Brewers Eliminate Rockies

Players of the Day for Sunday, October 7, 2018

National League

Milwaukee 6  Colorado 0

Jesus Aguilar

Milwaukee eliminated the Rockies with a shutout victory Sunday, as Wade Miley and five relief pitchers combined to blank the Rockies on four hits. Miley worked 4 2/3 innings, allowing three hits, and the Brewer bullpen took care of the rest.

Jesus Aguilar socked a fourth-inning solo home run to give he Brewers a 2-0 lead. Orlando Arcia and Keon Broxton belted back-to-back solo shots in the ninth inning to seal the deal.

Acuna Jr.: Grand Slam

Red hot late season, the Brewers won eight straight to close out the regular season, capturing the Central division and achieving the best record in the National League. Their sweep of the Rockies left their winning streak at 11. They will host the winner of the Dodgers-Braves series in the NL Championship.

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Freddie Freeman

Atlanta 6  LA Dodgers 5

Staving off elimination, the Atlanta Braves won a close one at home, as Ronald Acuna Jr. smacked a second inning grand slam and Freddie Freeman unknotted a 5-5 tie in the sixth with a solo shot.

Atlanta's win left the Dodgers up two games to one, with game four scheduled for Monday in Atlanta. First pitch is slated for 4:30 pm ET.


American League

There were no games in the American League on Sunday.

Houston will be looking to eliminate the Indians in game three of their best-of-five divisional series, Monday, 1:30 pm, in Cleveland.

With the series tied, 1-1, Boston is at New York for game three between the Red Sox and Yankees, Monday at 7:40 pm ET.

J.A. Happ's 1-Hit Outing Lifts Yankees Over Rays; Ronald Acuna Jr. Leads Braves To 4th Straight

Players of the Day for Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Happ: 7 IP, 1 H, 0 ER

American League

The New York Yankees have been holding onto the top wild card spot since early May, but they haven't lost sight of the fact that Oakland and Seattle have made up ground over the long haul. They're still 3 1/2 up on Oakland and seven to the good over Seattle.

Nearing the end of July, prior to the trade deadline, the Yankees bolstered their pitching staff by picking up Lance Lynn from the Twins and J.A. Happ from the Blue Jays. The two pitchers have been lights out since putting on the pinstripes.

On Tuesday, Happ won his third straight as a Yankees, blanking the Rays on one hit over seven innings in New York's 4-1 home victory. The 35-year-old lefty threw 106 pitches, walked four, fanned four and lowered his Yankee ERA to 1.89. On the season, he's 13-6 with a 3.86 ERA.

Lynn has done his part as a reliever and starter. In three appearances (two starts) for the Yanks, he's allowed one run on 12 hits over 16 2/3 innings with 22 strikeouts, for an ERA of 0.54. Lynn - who is 1-0 as a Yankee - is scheduled for a start Friday against the Blue Jays.

The Yankees have won seven of their last nine after being swept four straight by the Red Sox. On Wednesday, they face the Rays in game two of their three game series, 7:05 pm EDT.

Acuna Jr. is on fire

National League

Atlanta's Ronald Acuna Jr. isn't just hot, he's sizzling

On Monday, Acuna, the Braves' leadoff hitter, hit home runs in his first at-bat in both games of a doubleheader sweep of the Miami Marlins. On Tuesday, Acuna belted a leadoff homer on the first pitch, to become the youngest player in major league history to homer in five straight games.

Helping the Braves down the Marlins, 10-6, Acuna ripped a three-run shot in the seventh inning after Dansby Swanson put Atlanta up, 7-6. Acuna went 3-for-5, his two dingers driving in four runs.

Acuna has hit safely in his last eight games, batting at a .471 pace (16-for-24) with eight home runs, 15 RBI and 13 runs. His hot streak has vaulted the Braves into first place in the NL East by two games over the Phillies, 2-1 losers Tuesday night in Boston.

Atlanta has won four straight and 13 of their last 17. They will be seeking a four-game sweep of the Marlins when they take the field at home, Wednesday, 7:35 pm EDT.

Ronald Acuna Jr. Ties Unique Record As Braves Sweep Marlins; Matt Chapman, Jed Lowrie Power A's Over Mariners

Players of the Day for Monday, August 13, 2018

American League

Chapman: 3 2B, 3 R

Matt Chapman and Jed Lowrie led an 11-hit attack with five doubles between them and the Oakland A's hung on for a 7-6 win over Seattle in the first of three games in Oakland.

Chapman went 3-for-5, each of his hits a two-bagger, drove in a run and scored three times. Lowrie drove in four runs - two of them scored by Champman - with a 3-for-5 effort, two doubles, a single and four RBI.

Lowrie: 2 2B, 4 RBI

The A's took a 7-1 lead into the eighth inning, but the resolute Mariners, fresh off sweeping four games in Houston from the Astros, nearly made the comeback, scoring two in the eighth and three in the ninth. The game finally ended when Blake Treinen struck out Nelson Cruz with runners on first and second.

With Houston idle, the result left the Athletics two games behind the Astros in the NL West. Seattle is 4 1/2 back.

Winners of 10 of their last 12, the A's host Seattle in game two on Tuesday, 10:05 pm EDT.

National League

It's been a summer-long grind, but the Atlanta Braves have finally wrested control of the NL East from the upstart Philadelphia Phillies. While the Phillies took a day off, the Braves swept a doubleheader from the last-place Marlins, 9-1, and 6-1, taking a one-game lead in the division.

Acuna Jr. ties rare record

Rookie leadoff hitter Ronald Acuna, Jr. tied a rare record by homering to lead off both ends of a double-header.

In the first game, Acuna led off with a home run, added a two-run double in the sixth, stole a base, walked twice and scored three times, going 2-for-3 with three runs and three RBI. In game two, Acuna again started the Braves' first inning with a homer, his 17th, and singled in another run in the sixth. Acuna went 3-for-5 in the second half of the double header with two RBI and two runs.

The 20-year-old Venezuelan is batting .282 with 17 home runs and 39 RBI in 259 at-bats.

According to ESPN via the Elias Sports Bureau, Baltimore's Brady Anderson was the last to hit a pair of leadoff homers in one day against the Chicago White Sox on Aug. 21, 1999.

Before that, the feat was accomplished Oakland's Ricky Henderson against the Cleveland Indians on July 5, 1993. Harry Hooper did it for the Boston Red in a pair of games at the Washington Senators on May 20, 1913.

Atlanta plays two more against visiting Miami, Tuesday and Wednesday. The Braves don't face the Phillies until late September, when they play four at home, September 20-23, and then close out the regular season with three games in Philadelphia.

Ronald Acuna Jr. Goes Yard In Atlanta Win; Matt Davidson Socks A Pair of HRs For White Sox

Players of the Day for Thursday, April 26, 2018

Davidson: 2HR, 3RBI

American League

At 6-16, the White Sox aren't likely to make much of an impact this season, but they have a keeper in Matt Davidson, who cranked out a pair of homers in Chicago's 6-3 win at Kansas City.

Davidson ripped a solo shot in the fourth inning and sent Royals' starter Jacob Junis to the showers with his second blast, a two-run rip that traveled some 450 feet. The first home run was a line shot to the left field corner off a fastball, but Junis didn't fool Davidson with a hanging slider in the sixth. Davidson got full extension and parked it.

The two long balls gave Davidson seven on the season, with 15 RBI. In 2017, his first season in the majors, Davidson had 26 home runs and 68 RBI in 118 games.

The win kept the White Sox out of last place, dropping the Royals 1 1/2 games behind them. The game was just the first of a five-game series in Kansas City, with game two slated for a first pitch at 8:15 pm EDT.

National League

Freddie Freeman laced three doubles in four at-bats, Ozzie Albies socked his eighth home run of the season, and highly-touted rookie, Ronald Acuna Jr., unleashed an upper-deck blast to center and doubled home the go-ahead run as the Atlanta Braves scalped the Cincinnati Reds, 7-4.

Acuna Jr.: 3-4, HR, 2B, 3RBI

Freeman and Albies have been instrumental to Atlanta's success this season. Albies is tied for the league lead in hone runs, and is second - with 10 - in doubles to Freeman's 11. Freeman's .326 batting average is tied for fifth in the NL.

Adding Acuna to the mix is only going to inflict more pain on opposing hitters. With just two games under his belt, Acuna is unproven, but his abilities are hard to deny. Moving from A to AAA last season, the 20-year-old phenom batted a combined .325, socked 21 homers, 31 doubles, drove in 82 runs and swiped 44 bases.

Since his call-up, Acuna is 4-for-9 (.444), including Thursday's 3-for-4, 2RBI effort.

The win gave the Braves a 2-2 split in Cincinnati. At 7:05 pm EDT Friday, the Braves open a series in Philadelphia. The Phillies trail the Mets in the NL East by 1/2-game. Atlanta is 1 1/2 back, so this weekend should lead to some changes in the division standings.