Shohei Ohtani achieved the never-before-seen 50-50 season on Sept. 19, with 50 home runs and 50 steals in the same season. Then he reached the 51-51 club in the same game while helping his team clinch the first playoff berth of his career.
But that wasn’t the end of his history-making this season.
On Thursday, Ohtani went 3-for-5 with a run, an RBI and a double, which was enough to push him to 400 total bases on the season. He’s the 19th player to ever accomplish the feat, and the first since the quartet of Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Todd Helton and Luis Gonzalez in 2001.
An RBI single in the seventh inning, which put the Dodgers in the lead, also made Ohtani 10 for his last 11 with runners in scoring position, which doesn’t sound possible. Over his last seven games, he is an inhuman 20-for-29 with five doubles, five homers, 16 RBI, 12 runs and seven stolen bases.
That performance helped the Dodgers clinch their 11th NL West title in 12 seasons with a 7-2 win over the San Diego Padres.
With the division and the wild-card bye now in hand, the Dodgers can take a leisurely approach to their final series of the season, in which they will face the last-place Colorado Rockies in the offensively friendly confines of Coors Field. It would be hard to blame Ohtani for swinging out of his shoes in those final three games.
What is Shohei Ohtani on pace for?
With only a few games left in the season, Ohtani doesn’t have much time to push his numbers into even more ludicrous territory, but he’ll be trying.
With 53 homers, 56 steals and four games remaining after Wednesday, Ohtani is on pace to finish the season with 54 homers and 57 stolen bases. Of course, all he needs is one ludicrous game, which Coors Field is absolutely capable of providing, to pull off a 55-55 season.
Ohtani reached 50-50 in spectacular fashion
Ohtani didn’t just achieve 50-50 on Sept. 19, he burst through the walls of the newfound club like the Kool-Aid Man with one of the best offensive games in MLB history. His total line: 6-for-6, three homers, two stolen bases, two doubles, four runs and 10 RBI.
It was the first three-homer, two-steal game and the 16th 10-RBI game in MLB history. If there are any better single-game performances, they featured four homers.
The final piece of the 50-50 puzzle came in the seventh inning of that game against the Miami Marlins, off reliever Mike Baumann.
Ohtani had reached the half-century mark in steals early in the first inning, stealing third after opening the game with a double, then added his 51st steal in the second inning after an RBI single. His lone out of the game came on his next at-bat in the third, when his ball fell just short of a homer and he was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple.
Had the ball gone further, it would have been a four-homer game. Had Ohtani been a bit faster, it would have been a cycle.
Ohtani’s next three at-bats all resulted in homers, with the exclamation point arriving in the ninth inning against position-player pitcher Vidal Brujan.
Shohei Ohtani’s history-making goes beyond 50-50
In addition to creating the 50-50 club, Ohtani has done more than enough to make his first season with the Dodgers worth remembering.
As far as reaching certain numbers in home runs and stolen bases goes, Ohtani has journeyed deep into uncharted territory. In August, he became the sixth player to ever reach 40-40 — joining Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodríguez, Alfonso Soriano and Ronald Acuña Jr. — and he did so in record time. The earliest any of those players had reached both thresholds was Soriano on Sept. 16, 2006.
And Ohtani’s 40th homer was a special one: a walk-off grand slam.
Rodriguez previously held the record for most in both categories, with 42 homers and 46 stolen bases in 1998. Ohtani matched that 42-42 season on his bobblehead night on Aug. 28 and surpassed it two days later on Aug. 30.
Ohtani’s home run count surpasses his previous career high of 46 set in 2021, his first MVP year, and he has shattered his previous best in steals (26, also in 2021). He currently leads the NL in homers and ranks behind only Elly De La Cruz in steals.
The Sept. 19 game was Ohtani’s 13th game of the season with at least one homer and one steal, which tied him with Rickey Henderson in 1986 for the most in MLB history, according to The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya. Ohtani took sole possession of the record a day later, when he hit home run No. 52 and stole base No. 52.
Ohtani’s 50th homer also broke the Dodgers’ single season homer record, previously held by Shawn Green with 49 in 2001. His 56th stolen base tied Ichiro Suzuki for the most ever by a Japanese-born player.
And, of course, Ohtani set records for both size of contract ($700 million) and deferred contract money ($680 million) when he signed with the Dodgers before this season.
Ohtani has built his career on being unprecedented. Even in a season in which he isn’t able to pitch, having undergone UCL surgery at the end of 2023, he is still doing things MLB has never seen.
