Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani is reaching new heights never before seen in baseball history
The Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani heads to first on a two-run home run during the fifth inning of a game against the Rockies on Friday in Los Angeles. Credit: AP/Mark J. Terrill
Once there, Shohei Ohtani didn’t get to spend much time in the 50-50 club Thursday in Miami. By night’s end, he already had renamed it.
That’s because Ohtani’s three-homer, 10-RBI, two stolen base tour de force in the Dodgers’ 20-4 smackdown of the Marlins left him as the sole member of the 51-51 club when the dust finally cleared at loanDepot Park.
He wasn’t there very long either. Twenty-four hours later, upon returning home to Dodger Stadium, Ohtani received a standing ovation from the crowd of 49,073, then treated the fans to the Chavez Ravine opening of the 52-52 club with a fifth-inning homer (423 feet) and stolen base in the seventh. It was the 14th time this season Ohtani homered and stole a base in the same game, breaking Rickey Henderson’s mark of 13 from 1986, but Thursday’s performance was the masterpiece, his Mona Lisa in a season-long gallery of brilliance.
“If I’m being honest, it was something I wanted to get over as soon as possible because the [authenticated] balls were being exchanged every time I was up to bat, so it was something that I wanted to get over with,” Ohtani told reporters Friday through interpreter Will Ireton. “I’m just happy, relieved, and very respectful to my peers and everybody that came before that played this sport of baseball.”
Ohtani isn’t finished yet, either. There were still eight regular-season games left, then the playoffs, as the Dodgers are likely to close out the NL West title in the coming days.
No other sport worships its records like baseball, which obsessively compares players and numbers across generations, dating back more than a century. But Ohtani is re-writing history on an almost nightly basis, at a rate that’s astonishing for both its speed and level of achievement.
Oh, and one other thing.
Did we all forget that Ohtani is performing all this never-before-seen wizardry while still rehabbing from last year’s Tommy John surgery, his second in five years? That’s another remarkable sidebar to Ohtani’s blitz of these milestones: he’s not even operating at full capacity. While most pitchers recovering from UCL repair would be tuning up with a minor-league rehab stint, Ohtani used this season’s mound sabbatical to establish himself as the greatest offensive player in the game’s history.
“There’s nothing you really can say because there’s nothing anybody can do about it,” Dodgers teammate Mookie Betts told the media in Miami. “He’s just too good.”
That’s coming from a former MVP himself in Betts, who reached the 30-30 club during that award-winning season in 2018, two years before he signed a 12-year, $365 million extension with L.A. Betts is considered a transcendent player, a multi-positional threat with both power and speed who narrowly missed a second MVP in 2023 when he was edged by Ronald Acuna Jr. -- thanks to the Atlanta star posting a 40-40 season (41 homers, 73 stolen bases).
But Ohtani has made comparisons impossible this year by doing what had never been done. Sure, the fixation was on 50-50, because the public loves round numbers. The reality is that Ohtani already had left everyone behind as soon as he reached 43 homers and 43 stolen bases three weeks earlier in Phoenix.
At the start of September, whether or not Ohtani would get to 50-50 was still up for some debate. I’m not sure why. If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Ohtani since he first came to the States in 2018 -- committed to being a two-way player -- is that he strives to do what most people might think is impossible. Once Ohtani got on pace for a 50-50 season, it was going to be difficult to knock him off.
“While Shohei Ohtani has been a groundbreaking player for many years, his latest feat as the first 50/50 player in the history of Major League Baseball reflects not just his amazing power-and-speed talent, but his character, his drive, and his commitment to all-around excellence,” commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “We are proud that he continues to take our game to new heights.”
When it comes to “new heights,” Ohtani is putting together baseball’s Everest this season. On the verge of the eagerly-awaited 50-50 threshold, Ohtani went 6-for-6 Friday with two doubles, three homers, two stolen bases and 10 RBIs. Marlins manager Skip Schumaker was asked about pitching to the scorching-hot Ohtani with first base open trailing 11-3 in the seventh, which resulted in No. 50 -- a two-run blast off reliever Mike Baumann.
“If it was a tight game, one-run lead of we’re down one, I probably put him on,” Schumaker told the media in Miami. “Down that many runs, that’s a bad move baseball-wise, karma-wise, baseball god-wise. I think out of respect for the game, we were going to go after him.”
No doubt the 15,548 fans at loanDepot Park were appreciative, despite seeing their Marlins get hammered. They’d rather be a witness to history, and Ohtani’s 50-50 tour has energized baseball in a way we haven’t experienced since Barry Bonds’ chase of 73 homers nearly a quarter-century ago (without the stain of any PED connections). And his accomplishments have resonated throughout the sports world in general.
“Insane!!!” wrote Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes on X.
And the Lakers’ LeBron James checked in on X with: “THIS GUY IS UNREAL!!! WOWZERS (followed by a string of high-five emojis).”
Ohtani’s demolition of the record books this season does raise a curious question for the future: Did pitching every five days as the ace of the Angels’ rotation prevent Ohtani from unleashing this power-speed combo on a more regular basis? During his previous two MVP seasons, in ’21 and ’23, Ohtani smacked 46 and 44 homers, respectively, but his career-high in stolen bases was 26 before this year.
The Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani, center, steals second as Rockies first baseman Michael Toglia, right, watches during the seventh inning of a game Friday in Los Angeles. Credit: AP/Mark J. Terrill
MLB’s introduction of the pitch-clock rules and larger bases certainly have made it easier to steal overall. But Ohtani has doubled the number of steals -- he’s only been caught four times, a staggering 93% success rate -- suggesting he’s put more of a focus on that part of his game, and that’s helped him score 125 runs, the most in the majors through Friday (the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. had 124, followed by the Yankees Juan Soto at 120).
“He’s not pitching this year so I think he is emptying the tank offensively,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told the media n Miami. “I do think the power, the on-base [percentage], the average, I think he can do that as a pitcher. He’s done something pretty similar like that with his OPS. But as far as the stolen bases go, I’m not sure about that.”
As for the pitching-side, Ohtani has progressed in his rehab to throwing bullpen sessions, but Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman apparently has ruled out taking the mound in a game this season. Ohtani turned 30 in July, and with another nine years to go on his mega-deal, it will be interesting to see how long he continues as a two-way player.
Most of the time he’s missed since coming to the majors has been due to pitching-related injuries, and it’s not a stretch to suggest the strain of being an elite-level two-way player takes an extraordinary physical toll. Ohtani received his $700 million contract for those unicorn abilities, but even limited to DH duties this season, he’s been worth every penny. Not only as the NL favorite for what would be this third MVP trophy, but his daily case for being the best player in MLB history.
From a statistical standpoint, Ohtani already is in a class by himself.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
