In 1959, the Braves were back in the thick of contention again, with the same core of regular players, and a stronger pitching staff, since Buhl came back to pitch 200 innings in 31 games, with a 15–9 record. Spahn and Burdette were brilliant, each with a 21–15 record in 290 innings pitched and a combined 41 complete games. Aaron and Matthews had prolific seasons. Aaron led the league with careers highs in 223 hits, .355 batting average and 400 total bases. He had 39 home runs, 123 RBI and led the league in slugging percentage. Matthews paced the team with 46 home runs and batted in 114 runs.