Shohei Ohtani was already a singular talent in MLB history, but on Thursday against the Miami Marlins, he further secured his place in baseball lore.
The Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter hit his 50th home run to become the first player to ever hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases in a single season.
It came on the back of a sterling day for the one-of-a-kind athlete. Coming into the outing sitting at 48 home runs and 49 stolen bases, the future Hall-of-Famer went five-for-five on the day with two doubles, two home runs and two stolen bases, and seven RBIs, finishing off the feat in just over two hours.
For his final act, Ohtani sent a two-run shot to left field in the top of the seventh against the Marlins for his second homer of the day, and one that will live on in the history books forever.
Mike Baumann was the lucky pitcher to get taken deep. He’ll likely tell his grandkids about that one.
Just an inning earlier, Ohtani smoked his first homer of the day to right field, another two-run shot to score Andy Pages.
Ohtani became just the sixth player to ever enter to 40/40 club earlier this season, joining Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Alfonso Soriano and Ronald Acuña Jr. in the exclusive group.
The closest any of the other five ever came to 50/50 was Rodriguez, when he totalled 42 homers and 46 stolen bases in 1998 for the Seattle Mariners.
In his debut season with the Dodgers, the 30-year-old Ohtani has set career highs in homers, doubles, stolen bases and RBIs. He signed a record 10-year, $700 million contract with Los Angeles in the off-season, forming a trio of MVPs alongside Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
A two-way star who has earned two MVP awards thanks to his exploits on the mound along with his presence as one of baseball’s most feared sluggers, Ohtani has been relegated to only hitting in 2024 after undergoing elbow surgery towards the end of the 2023 campaign.
His 50 homers are the most by a Dodger in a single season, surpassing Shawn Green’s franchise record of 49 set in 2001. Ohtani still has a ways to go if he wants to reach Los Angeles’ stolen base record, which Maury Wills set in 1962 with 104 swiped bags.
