Shohei Ohtani made history Thursday with a home run in the seventh inning of the Los Angeles Dodgers’s home game against the Miami Marlins, becoming the first Major League player to achieve 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in one season. The Dodgers won 20-4 and secured their ticket to the playoffs.
The Japanese’s historic moment came after Ohtani had already surpassed the 50-base steal mark in the afternoon game in Miami. In the sixth inning, he hit his 49th home run to set the stage for what was to come in the seventh, when he sent the ball over the left-field wall with his fifth hit of the afternoon and put the score at 14-3 in favor of Los Angeles.
“I’m happy that the team won the game and that this (getting to 50-50) is behind us,” Ohtani said with his usual modesty when interviewed after the game by SportsNetLA.
Ohtani, the favorite for MVP honors in his first year in the NL, led off with a double and then stole third base for his 50th steal of the season. He hit an RBI single in the second inning and immediately stole second base for his 51st steal.
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In the third inning, the Japanese hit another double to drive in two runs. In the sixth, he flew over the right-center field wall, a 438-foot blast, to drive in two more runs. His historic home run in the seventh was with one on board against pitcher Mike Baumann.
Ohtani opens club 51-51 and reaches 10 RBIs
And the Japanese show wasn’t over. In the ninth inning, he had to bat with two men on board and again he went over the wall, this time to the top of the right-hand side stands for his sixth hit, his third home run, his tenth RBI of the day and in the process opening the club’s score at 51-51. That put the game at 17-3.
Ohtani joined the 40-40 club on August 23 with another memorable performance. That time he hit a grand slam to knock out the Tampa Bay Rays in the ninth inning and thus reach 40 home runs. That night he became the fifth man in MLB history to accumulate those figures of 40 home runs and 40 steals.
Almost immediately, each time Ohtani hit another home run and stole another base, he continued to set new historical records. But 50-50 became the Japanese goal, although he always said his goal was only to help the Dodgers win games.
Ohtani, a multiple American League MVP with the LA Angels, began his historic campaign with that scandal involving the theft of some $17 million dollars from his then-interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara.
Ohtani makes playoffs for the first time on a historic day
In addition to making individual history with his monstrous performance in Miami, including setting a new Dodgers record for home runs in a season by surpassing Shawn Green’s 49 (2001), Shohei Ohtani led his new team to a playoff berth for the 12th consecutive year. It is the first time in the Japanese’s career that he has earned a spot in a Major League postseason.
Ohtani, who has not pitched this season because of right elbow surgery a year ago, will return to the mound as a starter in 2025. But he has been pitching out of the Dodgers’s bullpen in recent weeks and manager Dave Roberts said earlier this week that it’s not a given that his superstar will not pitch in the postseason.
