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Matt Olson is having a historic season with the Atlanta Braves, and the record could keep coming.
The first baseman hit his 40th home run of the season on Thursday's 7-5 loss against the Pirates. The slugger is now tied in first place with Shohei Ohtani as the MLB's home run leader.
Olson's magical season
After Thursday's solo home run, the Atlanta native also became the 13th player in MLB history to have over 40 home runs and 100 RBIs through 113 games.
If that wasn't enough, the 29-year-old also became the fastest player in Braves history to get 40 home runs in a season.
Olson is also on pace to hit 57 home runs this season, which would break the franchise record of 51 home runs in a campaign held by Andruw Jones in 2005.
With only 49 games to play the record could seem like a distant possibility, but the slugger has hit 22 home runs in the past 45 games.
Olson is "unbelievable"
Talking about the first baseman's season so far, Braves manager Brian Snitker said that the player should be receiving more attention by now: "He's been unbelievable. To me, he should be garnering more praise than he's getting for the season he is having. It's his entire game and how he plays. It's been very special."
Olson started the season struggling with his strikeout rate, but since June 15, the player has drastically improved his statistics:
Before June 15:
.228 AVG
.830 OPS
29.9% strikeout rate
14.4 at-bats per home runs
After June 15:
.327 AVG
1.21 OPS
18.7% strikeout rate
7.6 at-bats per home runs
Matt Olsen is joined by Ronald Acu�a as the pair of Braves players vying to make history in 2023. The Venezuelan can become the first MLB player ever to record 40 home runs and 50 stolen bases in the same campaign.
Acu�a currently has 25 home runs and 53 steals.
The Braves continue to sit comfortably at the top of their division with 9.5 games in the lead, and are currently the best team in baseball registering 72 wins in the season.