Atlanta Braves superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. continues to make history. 

In the 10th inning of Wednesday night’s game against the Chicago Cubs, Acuña stole his 70th base of the season. Last week, the Braves outfielder hit his 40th home run of the season during a game against the Washington Nationals. 

Acuña became the first player in MLB history to enter the 40-70 club. 

Moments after he stole the base, Acuña grabbed the base pad from the dirt as Braves fans gave him a standing ovation. The Braves also played a short video montage on the outfield big screen. 

The Chicago Cubs’ broadcasters took exception to the extended pause in the game. Announcers Jon “Boog” Sciambi and Jim Deshaies said the decision to stop the game and recognize Acuña’s accomplishment was “absurd.”

BRAVES’ SPENCER STRIDER OFFERS SCORCHING HOT TAKE: ‘GET RID OF THE FANS’

“We’re really stopping the game to do a highlight montage?” Sciambi said during the Marquee Sports Network broadcast.

Deshaies then questioned the need to remove the base during the game.

“Can we get the base after the game? This is pretty absurd. I mean, it’s a hell of an accomplishment, but …,” Deshaies said. 

Sciambi reiterated his frustrations with the video montage. 

“Totally, but you can’t stop the game to run a highlight montage,” Sciambi said. 

Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves waves to the crowd after a 6-5 win against the Chicago Cubs in which he recorded his 70th steal of the season at Truist Park Sept. 27, 2023, in Atlanta. (Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images)

The Cubs are fighting for their postseason lives after missing the playoffs the last two seasons.

Shortly after Acuña made it safely to second base, All-Star second baseman Ozzie Albies hit a walk-off single to give the Braves a second straight one-run win over the Cubs. The loss dropped Chicago to 82-76, and the team is tied with the Marlins for third place in the NL wild-card standings.

“It’s really an incredible moment,” Acuña told reporters after the game through an interpreter.

Acuña has hit 41 home runs this year. Alex Rodriguez had been the only player with 40 home runs to steal more than 46 bases in the same season. In 1998, Rodriguez had 42 home runs, 124 RBIs and 46 steals.

Dansby Swanson of the Chicago Cubs, left, misses a tag on Ronald Acuña Jr. of the Atlanta Braves as Acuña records his 70th steal of the season during the tenth inning at Truist Park Sept. 27, 2023, in Atlanta. (Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images)

MLB added bigger bases this season to bring more base-running excitement to the game. 

Acuña and Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts are widely considered the front-runners for NL MVP.

Santa Anita opens its fall meeting Friday with higher than normal anticipation because it closes with the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 3-4. What that means is a mad dash to get in as many big races as possible in the first two weekends of its 19-day meeting. This gives the horses enough time to recover and run in the million-dollar races the first weekend of November that signal the unofficial end of the racing year.

Starting Friday there are nine stakes this weekend, including the Grade 1 $300,000 Awesome Again race that features Preakness Stakes winner National Treasure among a field of nine.

Next weekend there are six stakes over a three-day weekend that ends Monday with three races where the winners are automatically entered, all expenses paid, into a Breeders’ Cup race. Of course, when you are racing at this year’s Breeders Cup track, the expenses for the sanctioning group are a whole lot less.

Saturday’s Awesome Again, also a win-and-your-in race for the Breeders’ Cup, is the most intriguing of the weekend. It grew less interesting Wednesday when trainer Tim Yakteen decided not to enter Practical Move, winner of this year’s Santa Anita Derby. The colt was all set to be one of the favorites in the Kentucky Derby but spiked a fever two days before the race and was scratched. He hasn’t run since.

The entering of National Treasure was a mild surprise, but trainer Bob Baffert has been liking what he’s seen of the 3-year-old colt since he returned to Santa Anita.

“I liked the way he breezed last week,” Baffert said. “The Travers (finished fifth) was sort of a disaster. But I’m putting the blinkers back on. He just doesn’t get into the race without it. You have to just draw a line through the Travers.”

Horses are given blinkers near the outside to their eyes to help focus a horse’s attention on what’s in front of them and not what’s going on around them. National Treasure won the Preakness with blinkers.

The Awesome Again is a 1 1/8-mile race, 1/16th of a mile shorter than the Preakness, which he won in front-running style under a masterful ride by John Velazquez. Juan Hernandez, who has been Baffert’s main jockey of late with Velazquez riding at the Belmont at Aqueduct meeting, will get off Baffert’s other horse, Defunded, to ride National Treasure.

The morning line disagrees with Hernandez’s decision to move to the Preakness winner, making him the 4-1 third choice. Defunded is the 2-1 favorite.

Defunded is no slouch, having won this race last year. He was underwhelming in his last two races at Del Mar, a fourth in the San Diego Handicap as the odds-on favorite, and sixth in the Pacific Classic.

The 5-year-old gelding has been pretty good at Santa Anita, though, winning four of his six lifetime starts at the track. The other two races were a second and third.

“He always run his best races at Santa Anita,” Baffert said. “He never looked comfortable at Del Mar. He’s just a horse for the course down here. He’s worked well here. We’ll see if he runs his race.”

Edwin Maldonado returns to ride Defunded, which he did last year when they won the Awesome Again. The 40-year-old Puerto Rico native finally is starting to get the better mounts as he keeps winning. Last year’s win in the Awesome Again was his first Grade 1 win. On Saturday, he won his first $1 million race, the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx near Philadelphia, riding Ceiling Crusher over a very sloppy track. The 3-year-old filly is based in Southern California for trainer Doug O’Neill.

The Awesome Again has a pretty good field, which includes Senor Buscador (5-1 odds), winner of the San Diego Handicap; Slow Down Andy (5-2), who always seems to be near the top in tough graded stakes; Skinner (8-1), who was getting a lot of buzz before scratching out of the Kentucky Derby the day before the race this year, and Stilleto Boy (6-1), winner of the Santa Anita Handicap but was eased and didn’t finish in the Pacific Classic.