Ronald Acuna Jr. hit a grand slam to become the first player in major league history with 30 home runs and 60 stolen bases in a season and the Atlanta Braves held on to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-7 in a matchup of baseball’s two top teams on Thursday.
Acuna connected off Lance Lynn as part of Atlanta’s six-run second inning for his 30th home run and third career grand slam.
Rickey Henderson was the closest to being the first 30-60 player before Acuna. He had 28 homers and 87 steals in 1986 and 28 home runs and 65 steals in 1990.
Spencer Strider became the first pitcher to reach 16 wins this season, allowing four runs and four hits in six innings with two walks and nine strikeouts.
Joe Jimenez surrendered two solo home runs in the seventh, one to Michael Busch and Mookie Betts’ second of the game.
Max Muncy took A.J. Minter deep to lead off the eighth to make it 8-7 but Pierce Johnson got the final out of the eighth.
Raisel Iglesias put two runners on in the ninth before getting Muncy to fly out and striking out Kike Hernandez for his 27th save.
Michael Harris also homered for the major league-best Braves, who have won four straight and eight of nine.
They finished August with a 21-8 record, tying the Atlanta-era record for wins in a month set by the 1999 team that went 21-7.
Betts, among the leading candidates for NL MVP along with Acuna, hit a three-run homer off Strider in the fifth to cut the Dodgers’ deficit to 7-4.
Betts finished August with 11 home runs and has 38 on the season, extending his career high.
Yastrzemski leads Giants past listless Padres
Mike Yastrzemski homered and drove in two runs as the San Francisco Giants rolled to a 7-2 victory over the sloppy San Diego Padres.
Yastrzemski had an RBI single during San Francisco’s six-run third inning, with five of those runs unearned due to two errors by first baseman Matthew Batten.
Yastrzemski homered in the fifth to extend the lead to 7-0.
Jakob Junis pitched four hitless innings and three relievers combined on a seven-hitter.
The Giants moved one game ahead of idle Arizona in the race for the NL’s third wild-card spot.