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Tag: national league east division

  • Atlanta Braves slugger Ronald Acuña Jr. becomes 5th player in MLB history to join elite 40-40 Club | CNN

    Atlanta Braves slugger Ronald Acuña Jr. becomes 5th player in MLB history to join elite 40-40 Club | CNN



    CNN
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    Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. etched his name into MLB history Friday night when he hit his 40th home run of the season and became the fifth member to join baseball’s exclusive 40-40 Club.

    With his first inning blast off Washington Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin, Acuña becomes just the fifth player in Major League Baseball history to join the elite 40-40 Club – players who have hit 40 home runs and stolen 40 bases in a single season.

    Oakland Athletics slugger Jose Canseco was the first player to display the rare combination of speed and power, when he hit 42 home runs and stole 40 bases in 1988. San Francisco Giants Barry Bonds matched Canseco’s stat line in 1996 with 42 homers and 40 steals. In 1998, Seattle Mariners Alex Rodriguez belted 42 home runs and had 46 stolen bases. Alfonso Soriano was the last player to accomplish the feat when he hit 46 home runs and stole 41 bases for the Washington Nationals in 2006.

    No other member of the 40-40 Club has come close to matching the base-stealing prowess that the 25-year-old Venezuelan has shown in 2023. As of Friday, Acuña has stolen a whopping 68 bases this season, which leads the big leagues.

    The 2018 National League Rookie of the Year and four-time All-Star is making a strong case to claim his first Most Valuable Player award this year. Acuña is sporting a .338 batting average and 101 RBIs to go along with his impressive home run and stolen base totals.

    Acuña’s Braves boast the best record in baseball at 98-55 with the postseason set to start on October 3.

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  • Offseason substitute teacher pitches 7 shutout innings for MLB-best Atlanta Braves | CNN

    Offseason substitute teacher pitches 7 shutout innings for MLB-best Atlanta Braves | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Allan Winans tossed seven shutout innings in the team’s 21-3 win against the New York Mets on Saturday afternoon.

    The 28-year-old right-hander racked up nine strikeouts and picked up his first Major League Baseball win in just his second appearance in the big leagues.

    Winans has been supplementing his minor league salary in the offseason by working as a substitute teacher in his native Bakersfield, California, where he is known as “Mr. W” to his students, according to Braves broadcaster Bally Sports South.

    Winans was a 17th-round draft pick in the 2018 draft; ironically, he was originally selected by the New York Mets.

    “Anytime you get called to the big leagues, it’s pretty special and it’s pretty cool. But getting drafted by those guys, they definitely made me dream of Citi Field, so getting to come here and do it against those guys makes it a little more special,” Winans said after the game.

    “But my job today was to help the Braves win, and that’s what we did, so I was pretty happy with it.”

    “Getting your first ‘W’ in the big leagues is pretty cool no matter what team it is (against),” Winans added.

    Braves’ slugger Matt Olson cracked two home runs in the blowout win to take over the big league lead with 42 long balls this season and drove in 4 runs to pad his big-league-best RBI total of 105.

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  • He hasn’t played in MLB for more than two decades. One team is paying him $1.2 million a year until 2035 | CNN

    He hasn’t played in MLB for more than two decades. One team is paying him $1.2 million a year until 2035 | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    He hasn’t picked up a professional baseball glove in 22 years but he’s still picking up a paycheck – and a hefty one at that.

    It’s July 1, which for New York Mets fans means it’s Bobby Bonilla Day.

    The former slugger retired in 2001 with the St. Louis Cardinals, but he has been collecting a check of nearly $1.2 million from the Mets every year on July 1 for more than a decade.

    The deal is part of a contract negotiated by Bonilla’s agent Dennis Gilbert, which will pay Bonilla $1,193,248.20 every year until 2035. Bonilla, a former All-Star who last played with the Mets in 1999, will be 72 when his contract with the team expires.

    How was Gilbert able to secure such a sweet deal for his client? They can both thank disgraced financier Bernie Madoff and Mets owner Fred Wilpon.

    The Mets wanted to part ways with Bonilla in 1999, but he had $6 million left on his contract. Wilpon believed he was getting a huge return on his investments through Madoff but the Mets owner turned out to be a victim of Madoff’s infamous Ponzi scheme

    Instead of paying Bonilla outright, Wilpon opted to defer payments so that the money could be unwittingly invested into Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

    Gilbert negotiated with the team to defer payments until 2011, with an 8% annual interest rate.

    Madoff was the mastermind of the most notorious Ponzi scheme in history. A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud that uses funds from more recent investors to pay profits to earlier investors, leading them to believe that their investments are part of a successful enterprise.

    Madoff is serving 150 years in prison for the multibillion-dollar scheme that he ran for decades.

    In total, Bonilla will walk away with a $29.8 million payday because of Wilpon’s blunder.

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  • No-hitter thrown for just the second time in World Series history as Astros beat Phillies in Game 4 | CNN

    No-hitter thrown for just the second time in World Series history as Astros beat Phillies in Game 4 | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    For just the second time in World Series history, a no-hitter has been thrown as four Houston Astros pitchers completed the feat against the Philadelphia Phillies Wednesday night to win 5-0 and secure their place in baseball lore.

    Cristian Javier started Game 4 in the series for the Astros, tossing six innings of no-hit ball, striking out nine and walking two. He threw 97 pitches before being relieved.

    Bryan Abreu and Rafael Montero each pitched a perfect inning before Ryan Pressly closed out the Phillies in the ninth at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

    With the win, the Astros even the best-of-seven series at two games apiece, scoring all of their runs in the fifth inning.

    Javier told FOX after the game, via a translator, “It’s funny. My parents told me today I was going to throw a no-hitter, and thanks to God, I was able to accomplish that.” Javier, who hails from the Dominican Republic, later told reporters his father arrived in the US yesterday and saw him pitch for the first time.

    Houston manager Dusty Baker said postgame that he was thinking of Javier and protecting his health when deciding to pull him after the sixth, noting Javier’s increasing pitch count and the strength of the Astros’ bullpen.

    “It’s always tough to take a guy out, but you have to weigh the no-hitter and history versus trying to win this game and get back to 2-2 in the World Series,” Baker said.

    The only previous no-hitter in 118 years of World Series history is Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

    The Astros now hold the distinction of throwing the first combined no-hitter in postseason history, according to Major League Baseball. The only other no-hitter in postseason history was tossed by Roy Halladay for the Phillies in the 2010 National League Divisional Series.

    Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson noted the Phillies had a no-hitter pitched against them by the New York Mets earlier this year, then won the next day.

    “These guys, they got a short memory. They’re going to go home tonight. They’re going to go to bed and come back in here tomorrow and prep and compete like they always do,” Thomson said.

    This is Houston’s second no-hitter this season. On June 25, Javier, Hector Neris and Pressly combined for one against the Yankees.

    Astros catcher Christian Vazquez said of the Game 4 performance that he did not think of completing the no-hitter until “maybe the last inning” due to the potent Phillies lineup, which slugged their way to a Game 3 victory Tuesday.

    “We’ve not finished the job yet, but this is very, very special for us. And when we get old we’re going to remember this,” Vazquez said.

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  • Philadelphia Phillies advance to the World Series for the first time since 2009 | CNN

    Philadelphia Phillies advance to the World Series for the first time since 2009 | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The Philadelphia Phillies have advanced to the World Series after defeating the San Diego Padres four games to one in the National League Championship Series. The Phillies won Sunday’s decisive Game 5 by a score of 4-3.

    The Phillies trailed in the eighth inning of the game before slugger Bryce Harper hit a two-run home run, his fifth of the postseason, to put Philadelphia in front. Harper was named NLCS most valuable player after racking up eight hits, five RBIs and two home runs in the series.

    Philadelphia advances to its first World Series since 2009 and looks for its first championship since 2008.

    The Phillies await the winner of the American League Championship Series between the Houston Astros and New York Yankees, which the Astros lead three games to none.

    Philadelphia entered the postseason as the National League’s final wild card team after finishing third place in their division with a regular season record of 87-75.

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  • Bryson Stott got tickets for a Phillies superfan who lost his father | CNN

    Bryson Stott got tickets for a Phillies superfan who lost his father | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Bryson Stott treated a superfan who lost his father to cancer to free National League Champion Series tickets.

    Geoff Crawley, a long-time Phillies fan, couldn’t afford tickets to see the team play in Philadelphia, WCAU-TV reported. But he was determined to watch the team play – so he used airline miles to book a flight from Washington, DC, to San Diego.

    Crawley’s passion for the Phillies started with his father, Skip, who died of cancer in July, according to WCAU. He brought a sweatshirt with a picture of his father to the San Diego game and placed it on the seat beside him.

    And when WCAU reporter John Clark posted a picture of the fan with his touching tribute to his father to Twitter on Wednesday, the story quickly took off, eventually making it to at least one member of the team.

    On Friday, Stott retweeted the image of Crawley, writing, “I would be happy to leave him 2 tickets for this weekend.”

    Crawley’s story was particularly resonant for Stott, who lost a high school friend to leukemia.

    “I mean I hate cancer,” Stott said, according to WCAU reporter John Clark. “Cancer is the worst thing on the planet. For (Geoff) to cheer us on all the way in California and honor his dad was pretty cool.”

    On Twitter, Crawley expressed his gratitude for the shortstop’s kind gesture – and asked Phillies fans to use the hashtag #WinItForSkip to honor his late father.

    “Thanks so much for all the love,” he wrote on Wednesday.

    Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed reporting by WCAU reporter John Clark.

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