Atlanta Braves superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. has put together an amazing, historic 2023 MLB season.
On Friday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Acuña crushed a grand slam to become the first player in major-league history to hit at least 30 home runs and steal at least 60 bases in a season (he also got married earlier in the day).
And on Saturday night, Acuña added another ridiculous achievement to the résumé.
On a 3-0 count, Acuña crushed a home run 454 feet to dead center at Dodger Stadium. The distance was quite impressive, but even more impressive was how hard Acuña hit the baseball.
The ball left Acuña’s bat at 121.2 miles per hour. That’s the hardest-hit baseball in the majors — by anyone — this season.
Ronald Acuña Jr crushes a home run with a 121.2 mph exit velocity! It's the hardest-hit ball in MLB this season. pic.twitter.com/1SkNcaGRgm
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) September 3, 2023
It’s the third-hardest-hit home run and sixth-hardest-hit ball of the Statcast era (which began in 2015).
According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, only Giancarlo Stanton has more than one batted ball of at least 120 mph, doing so 14 times.
players with 120+ mph batted balls tracked by Statcast (2015):
Giancarlo Stanton: 14
Ronald Acuña Jr.: 1
Oneil Cruz: 1
Gary Sánchez: 1
Aaron Judge: 1 https://t.co/Hvpcfiy4IL— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) September 3, 2023
Stanton has hit home runs of 121.7 mph (2018) and 121.3 mph (2020) according to Mark Bowman of MLB.com, edging out Acuña.
Acuña's 121.2 mph exit velo was the third highest recorded on a homer since Statcast began collecting this data in 2015. Stanton produced 121.7 mph (8/9/18) and 121.3 mph (7/25/20) exit velos on homershttps://t.co/bA3RUXJKH8
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) September 3, 2023
Acuña now has 32 homers, 63 stolen bases, and a robust .338/.420/.585 slash line on the season. He’s in a battle with the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman for NL MVP honors.
