The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani became the first player in baseball history to reach the 50/50 club on Thursday by stealing two bases and hitting three home runs in a 6-for-6 performance against the Marlins.
MIAMI — Shohei Ohtani remained stoic as he rounded the bases in Thursday’s ninth inning, after another prodigious home run that merely piled on to what had already been one of the most memorable performances in baseball history. But he cracked moments later, while making his way through the usual parade of dugout high-fives. He smiled sheepishly, gritted his teeth, rhythmically slumped his shoulders, as if to convey amazement — embarrassment, even — by his unrelenting dominance.
That home run, off a position player inserted into a game that was thoroughly out of hand, was his third of the night and 51st of the season. It drove in his 10th run, a Los Angeles Dodgers record. And it provided an emphatic conclusion to a game that saw Ohtani become the first 50/50 player in baseball history while clinching his first ever trip to Major League Baseball’s postseason.
Twenty-seven days ago, Ohtani reached the 40/40 club with a walk-off grand slam. He then set a new benchmark, while on his way to becoming the first full-time designated hitter to win an MVP, with a six-hit, three-homer, two-steal performance amid the Dodgers’ 20-4 rout of the Miami Marlins. A Dodgers team that has spent an entire summer praising Ohtani’s exploits is running out of ways to explain them.
“I almost cried, to be honest with you”, veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas said. “It was a lot of emotion, because of everything that happens behind the scenes that we get to witness every single day. It’s a pretty cool moment. We all know what he’s capable of doing, but for him to reach that mark — it’s pretty amazing.”
Ohtani began the Dodgers’ seven-game road trip three home runs and two stolen bases away from 50/50, then added only one homer and one steal over the next six. When the series finale from LoanDepot Park arrived on Thursday, it seemed a safe bet that Ohtani’s milestone would wait until the Dodgers returned home. But Ohtani opened with a line-drive double off the wall in right-center field, then picked up his 50th steal by sneaking his foot underneath the tag of Marlins third baseman Connor Norby.
A second-inning single was followed by stolen base No. 51. Ohtani then added a two-run double in the third — before getting thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple — and followed with a 438-foot home run into LoanDepot Park’s second deck in the sixth for his 49th home run.
