Braves Briefing: MLB.com ranks Ronald Acuña ahead of Mookie Betts in MVP race

The race for NL MVP has been a no-brainer all season long but a late push by Mookie Betts with the Los Angeles Dodgers has made this battle a much closer one.

Despite a historic season by Ronald Acuña Jr., the betting lines are back and forth on who will win the NL MVP. On MLB.com, the experts ranked their contenders for the NL MVP race. They put Acuña at the top spot.

Here's what they wrote:

Here we go. Acuña is still No. 1. But it's by a razor-thin margin. The Braves superstar has already put up the first 30-60 season in AL/NL history. And he's blowing past that historic milestone, with 34 homers and 63 steals and counting. How could he not be MVP? Well … Mookie might have something to say about that.

After Acuña, they put Betts at second. Freddie Freeman at three, Matt Olson at four, and Corbin Carroll at five.

NL East Standings

Team	Record	GB	Action Today
Atlanta	91-48	-	Hosts Pittsburgh
Philadelphia	77-62	14.0	Hosts Miami
Miami	72-68	19.5	@ Philadelphia
NYM	64-75	27.0	@ Minnesota
Washington	63-77	28.5	Hosts LAD

We wrote it

Braves Today's Dan Strickland led our coverage Thursday night. In his takeaways, he highlighted the performance of Braves pitcher Max Fried.

The Braves needed Max to be Max tonight, and he delivered. After two bad games the previous two nights against the Cardinals, the Braves looked to Fried to take command of the game.
Besides a rough second inning where the Cardinals scored three runs, Max was in control all night. Max went six innings, giving up three earned runs, two walks, and striking out four. Max is now 7-1 with a 2.70 ERA.

Check out all of the takeaways.

What's next for Atlanta

Tonight, the Braves open up a three-game home series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. First pitch is at 7:20p Eastern.

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