Los Angeles Dodgers sensation Shohei Ohtani entered Thursday two home runs and one stolen base shy of becoming the first player in MLB history to post a 50/50 season.
He seemed destined to reach the milestone in the coming days. Instead, all he needed was seven innings against the Miami Marlins to accomplish the historic feat.
Ohtani stole third base in the first inning after cracking a leadoff double to secure his 50th bag of the year. He added another for good measure after singling in the second.
After doubling in the third inning, Ohtani mashed a 438-foot home run off a 1-0 slider from George Soriano in the sixth.
Ohtani stepped up to the plate the very next inning with a chance to make history, and he did just that, cracking a 391-foot homer off Mike Baumann to left field.
Ohtani, however, wasn't done there. He hit his third home run of the day with a bomb in the ninth inning — this one a three-run, 440-foot upper-deck moonshot to right-center field off position player Vidal Brujan.
Ohtani was -350 to accomplish the 50/50 feat as of Wednesday and +255 to miss out. All it took was 24 hours for his backers to cash.
Thursday’s performance was a banner day in the National League MVP frontrunner’s historic season. Ohtani ultimately went 6-for-6 with a single, two doubles and three home runs along with four runs, 10 RBIs and his pair of steals. He was thrown out on one of his doubles trying to stretch it into a triple, dashing hopes of a cycle.
Ohtani is the 16th player — and first Dodger — to record 10 RBIs in a game and the first since Mark Reynolds in 2018. The two-way star also surpassed Shawn Green for most home runs in a single season by a Dodger.
With the blowout win, the Dodgers secured a playoff berth for the 12th consecutive season. Ohtani, of course, has yet to play playoff baseball in his MLB career after spending his first six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels.
