There is less than one week remaining in the 2019 regular season and the American League wild-card race is the hottest remaining postseason race. The Athletics, Indians, and Rays are battling for the two wild-card spots. One team will be left on the outside looking in. In addition to the postseason races, there are several players hoping to reach historic milestones before the regular season comes to a close Sunday. 

Here are three players chasing four different milestones in the final days of the 2019 regular season. 

Acuna nearing 40/40

Ronald Acuna
ATL • CF • #13
BA0.280
R127
HR41
RBI101
SB37
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At only 21 years old, Braves wunderkind Ronald Acuna Jr. is on the verge of doing something historic. He is only three steals away from becoming the fifth player in baseball history with 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a single season. Acuna would be the youngest player to accomplish the feat.

Here are the four 40/40 players in MLB history:


AgeHRSB

Jose Canseco, 1988 Athletics

23

42

40

Barry Bonds, 1996 Giants

31

42

40

Alex Rodriguez, 1998 Mariners

22

42

46

Alfonso Soriano, 2006 Nationals

30

46

42

Many others have come close to a 40/40 season -- most recently, Matt Kemp had 39 homers and 40 steals with the 2011 Dodgers -- but those four are the only players to do it. Acuna could soon be the fifth member of the club.

The Braves have five games remaining this season. They'll play two games against the Royals and three against the Mets, all on the road. Meibrys Viloria and Nick Dini have been sharing time behind the plate for Kansas City this month. Viloria has thrown out a whopping 42 percent of basestealers this season, Dini 40 percent in a limited sample. Acuna will have his hands full with them.

As for the Mets, their pitchers are notoriously slow to the plate, so much so that runners are 126 for 144 stealing bases against New York this year. That is a microscopic 13 percent caught stealing rate. The league average is 27 percent. Believe it or not, Acuna has stolen only four bases in 16 games against the Mets this year, and he has only five multiple steal games on the season.

With 40/40 on the line, done be surprised if Acuna runs wild against the Mets this coming weekend, even though they figure to be meaningless games for the Braves. That's assuming Acuna reaches base enough times to steal, of course.

Castellanos closing in on 60 doubles

Nicholas Castellanos
PHI • RF • #8
BA0.294
R100
HR27
RBI73
SB2
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Only nine players in baseball history have finished a season with more doubles than Nicholas Castellanos this year. Castellanos, who went from the Tigers to the Cubs at the trade deadline, is currently sitting on 58 doubles. He had 37 doubles in 100 games with Detroit and now has 21 doubles in 49 games with Chicago.

Here is the all-time single-season doubles leaderboard:

  1. Earl Webb, 1931 Red Sox: 67
  2. George Burns, 1926 Indians: 64
  3. Joe Medwick, 1936 Cardinals: 64
  4. Hank Greenberg, 1934 Tigers: 63
  5. Paul Waner, 1932 Pirates: 63
  6. Charlie Gehringer, 1936 Tigers: 60
  7. Chuck Klein, 1930 Phillies: 59
  8. Tris Speaker, 1923 Indians: 59
  9. Todd Helton, 2000 Rockies: 59
  10. Nicholas Castellanos, 2019 Tigers/Cubs: 58

There's an awful lot of Hall of Famers on that list. Each year we see one or two players put up a 60-double pace for a few weeks -- Indians third baseman Jose Ramirez was on that pace two years ago -- but usually they slow down as the season progresses. Not Castellanos though. You have to go back prior to World War II for the last righty hitter with this many doubles.

The Cubs close out their season with three games against the Pirates and three games against the Cardinals, all on the road. They are fighting for their postseason lives now. This past weekend's sweep at the hands of St. Louis put them on the brink. Castellanos' pursuit of 60 doubles is secondary to the team winning games, but, then again, his doubles help them win, so they're a good thing.

Verlander chasing 300 & 3,000 strikeouts

Justin Verlander
HOU • SP • #35
ERA2.53
WHIP.81
IP217.0
BB42
K288
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Astros co-ace Justin Verlander has one start remaining this season and he'll have a chance to join two exclusive clubs in that outing. Verlander is closing in on 300 strikeouts for the season (currently 288) and 3,000 strikeouts for his career (currently 2,994).

Obviously, reaching 300 strikeouts this season will be the more difficult task. Verlander needs 12 strikeouts in his final start to join teammate Gerrit Cole in the 300-strikeout club, and he'll have two things working against him:

  • The Angels, his opponent, have MLB's third lowest strikeout rate (20.2 percent).
  • The Astros won't push Verlander hard in his final start with the postseason looming.

Verlander faced the Angels on Sunday and struck out five batters in five innings. They are a pesky group and not easy to strike out. In fact, do you know how many pitchers have struck out 12 Angels this season? Zero. No one has had a 12-strikeout game against the Halos this year. Only 13 times all season have the Angels struck out 12 times in game, third fewest in baseball.

Of course, if you were to pick someone to be the first pitcher to strike out 12 Angels in a game this year, Verlander would be as good a pick as anyone. And, if does get those 12 strikeouts to reach 300 for the season, Verlander and Cole would be the second set of teammates in history with 300 strikeouts each, joining Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling with the 2002 Diamondbacks.

Getting the six strikeouts necessary to join the 3,000-strikeout club is much more doable, even against a contact-heavy team like the Angels. Verlander would be the second player to join the 3,000-strikeout club this season -- Yankees lefty CC Sabathia recorded his 3,000th strikeout on April 30 -- and I imagine this is one he would prefer to get done this year rather than wait on it all winter.

If he does get those six strikeouts, Verlander would be the 18th member of the 3,000-strikeout club and only the ninth to get there while beginning his career in 1970 or later. Furthermore, Verlander would join Hall of Famer Walter Johnson as the only players in the 3,000-strikeout club who spent their entire careers pitching for American League teams.

The Astros have designs on winning their second World Series title in three years and Verlander will be a huge part of their playoff run. Don't expect them to push him deep into his final start this coming weekend to reach some milestones, no matter how historic or individually significant, and I'm sure Verlander is totally cool with that.