By Morgan Greene
“And the Philadelphia Phillies have won it! And the people didn’t think it was possible!” announcer Brian Anderson shouted as his precious Phillies made the winning catch to end Game 4 of the NLDS. Well, there were a lot of things that the people didn’t think were possible…that is, until the Atlanta Braves actually broke the record for the most broken records in a regular season. That was thought to be “impossible,” but the Braves did it. Here are some examples of the “impossibles” they broke this year:
Most home runs. This act was performed by the Braves’ first baseman and former Oakland Athletic, Matt Olsen. He ended the regular season with 54 homers in all, a truly amazing feat.
Most RBIs. This was another incredible achievement by Matt Olsen, hand-in-hand with the homers, obviously. It was super cool to watch, and I believe after that, we all got pumped up.
Most steals and home runs. Ronald Acuna, Jr., the Braves right-fielder, may not have had 54 home runs, or even close to that record-breaking number. But, he did have 41, which is the current high for homers when you’ve achieved a smoking-hot 73 stolen bases! This put him above 40-70, beating Otis Nixon’s 1991 season of 72 bases stolen.
Batting average. Another Acuna achievement happened to be a record-breaking batting average. He ended the regular season with an average of .337. Insane.
Most strikeouts. Spencer Strider, the right-handed starter for the Braves, broke John Smoltz’s record of 276 strikeouts in the 1996 season, going on to finish the 2023 season with 281. He’s still only 24 years old and threw about 97 miles per hour on his four-seam fastball, usually his ultimate K pitch.
MVP. Though in a head-to-head race with Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman (former Brave; won the award in 2021), both Acuna Jr. and Matt Olsen are strong candidates for the 2023 MVP award.
Most homers as a team. This happened very recently, actually, when Kevin Pillar, our backup left-fielder, hit a home run against the Chicago Cubs. This totaled 300 homers, to put the Braves in second place for home runs hit as a team. They quickly went from 300 to 307, tying the record set by the 2019 Minnesota Twins in the very last game of the regular season on October 1.
Most wins in a season. The Braves went to “infinity and beyond” with the regular season wins they were picking up, ending it in 104 total. Unfortunately this streak did not continue through the postseason - not after we got that unfair week off for being the best team in the league all year, which always seems to kill our usual competitive nature.
There. You see? There were so many notable moments this past year, and just because they lost their momentum during the postseason doesn’t mean that we have to become discouraged. We’ve just lived through the Braves’ best regular season yet, which, no doubt, made history. Think about that, as we continue to wait for the award to be given to the true MVP, who I have faith will be a Braves player.
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